to dissemble their Obstinacie in so horrible a Crime) albeit the Women-kind especially, be able otherwayes to shed Teares at every light Occasion when they will, yea, although it were dissembling like the Crocodiles."[22] Such are the chief Features of this gross Superstition, as detailed by the Writers of the Period in which it most prevailed in this Country. _Scot_ has taken infinite Pains in collecting, from every Writer on the Subject, the _minutiæ_ of Witchcraft, and his Book is expanded to a thick Quarto, in Consequence of his commenting at large on the Particulars which he had given in his initiatory Chapters, for the Purpose of their complete Refutation and Exposure; a Work of great Labor, and which shows, at every Step, how deeply this Credulity had been impressed on the Subjects of Elizabeth. _James_, on the other Hand, though a Man of considerable Erudition, and, in some respects, of shrewd, good Sense, wrote in Defence of this Folly, and, unfortunately for Truth and Humanity, the Doctrine of the Monarch was preferred to that of the Sage. Fortunately the Time has arrived when the Belief of a King, or that of any other titled Personage, has very little Effect in fastening upon the World at large any peculiar Opinions he may have formed upon any Subject not within the Province of Reason. Spiritualists and the Disciples of Mesmer have made the Discovery that Witchcraft is fully explained by one or the other of the Mysteries taught by them. How much Truth there may be in the Assertion I cannot undertake to determine. But from a very limited Acquaintance with Mysteries in general, my Opinion is that the Application of Mesmerism for the Explanation of Witchcraft, would partake very much of the Nature of applying one Absurdity to the Explanation of another. For the "thousand and one" Examples of Witchcraft practiced by accused Persons in New England, an almost exact Parallel may be found in Cases which had previously occurred in Old England. And, in Proportion to the Number of Inhabitants in the respective Countries, there were as many in New as in Old England who raised their Voices against Prosecutions for the supposed Crime. Hence it is very obvious that mental Darkness was as dense in Old as in New England, at the Time of the Delusions of which we are speaking. Superstition was then bounded only by the Limits of what was termed Civilization. The Light of Science for the last two hundred Years has considerably relieved Mankind from that deadly Incubus, and it is gratifying to believe that the March of Mind is onward and that a future of pure Light is before the World of Humanity. Like dark Spots on a Planet, some Superstitions seem almost as unaccountable, and their Removal appears about as difficult, so long have we been accustomed to tolerate them.