In Thomas Hobbes, whom we may next consider, we find a philosopher who was altogether incredulous on the subject of witchcraft. “As for witches,” he writes, “I think not that their witchcraft is any real power; but yet that they are justly punished, for the false belief that they have that they can do such mischief, joined with their purpose to do it if they can; their trade being nearer to a new religion than to a craft or science.”[84] This dictum may accord with reason, but one must admit that it was cold comfort for persons accused of diabolical arts. And so was the more famous remark of Selden: “The Law against Witches does not prove there be any; but it punishes the Malice of those people, that use such means, to take away mens lives. If one should profess that by turning his Hat thrice, and crying Buz; he could take away a man’s life (though in truth he could do no such thing) yet this were a just Law made by the State, that whosoever should turn his Hat thrice, and cry Buz; with an intention to take away a man’s life, shall be put to death.”[85] Bayle, shortly after the beginning of the eighteenth century, agreed with Selden as to the justice of putting “sorciers imaginaires” to death.[86] Thomas Ady, believing (like Scot, to whom he often refers) that the witches and sorcerers of the Bible were mere cheats, and that the same is true of all who pretend to similar arts in modern times, is ready to admit the justice of the death penalty in cases of fraud. In describing the case of a certain Master of Arts who was “condemned only for using himself to the study and practice of the Jugling craft,” he concludes:--“If he had been a Jugler, or practiser of that Craft to this end, to withstand the Prophets when they wrought true miracles, as _Pharaohs_ Juglers withstood _Moses_, or if he were one that practised it to seduce the people after lying delusions, to magnifie himself as a false Prophet, like _Simon Magus_ in the _Acts_, or to cause people to ascribe miraculous power to him, or to seek to the Devil as our common Deceivers, called good Witches, do, he was deservedly condemned.”[87]