great; men began to lament the part they had played; and some made open confession in church of their grievous fault and weakness. The infatuation grew perhaps from the tricks or the craziness of the “bewitched” children; perhaps from the folly or the superstition of their parents. Whatever its cause, its effects were sad, and they are pregnant with warning. It is sometimes said that these doings sprang naturally from the theology and temper of New England. Rather, they were directly counter to both. They were a weak and foolish importation from Europe; and they prevailed in New England only for a short season. Soon her sons outgrew such folly; and nowhere in Christendom was the popular revolution against witchcraft so speedy and complete as in the Puritan colonies. TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources. Some accents and hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added, when a predominant preference was found in the original book. Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained. Pg 7: ‘The Nansets’ replaced by ‘The Nausets’. Pg 106: ‘opprobious speeches’ replaced by ‘opprobrious speeches’. Pg 111: ‘to sow and hill’ replaced by ‘to sow and till’. Pg 117: ‘the earthern floor’ replaced by ‘the earthen floor’. Pg 124: ‘named Aspiret’ replaced by ‘named Aspinet’. Pg 124: ‘bade Aspiret a hasty’ replaced by ‘bade Aspinet a hasty’. Pg 125: ‘Squanto, Takamahamon’ replaced by ‘Squanto, Tokamahamon’. Pg 151: ‘passed in in 1632’ replaced by ‘passed in 1632’. Pg 174: ‘clams, and muscles’ replaced by ‘clams, and mussels’. Pg 191: ‘They had had been left’ replaced by ‘They had been left’. Pg 201: ‘sprang aleak’ replaced by ‘sprang a leak’. Pg 217: ‘malicious inuendoes’ replaced by ‘malicious innuendoes’. Pg 258: ‘seal of Soloomon’ replaced by ‘seal of Solomon’. Pg 312: ‘wise statemanship’ replaced by ‘wise statesmanship’. Pg 326: ‘both of Massachusets’ replaced by ‘both of Massachusetts’. Pg 339: ‘with sevral other’ replaced by ‘with several other’. Pg 373: ‘the evenging of’ replaced by ‘the avenging of’. Footnote 57, Pg 46: ‘March 1, 1864-5’ replaced by ‘March 1, 1625’.