[53] This frank Acknowledgment that Witchcraft was "snarl'd" and "unintelligible," would seem to have been a sufficient Reason for letting it alone. But Reason and Superstition cannot exist together. [54] It is not very clear to what particular Case the Author refers. See _Hist. and Antiqs. Boston_, 283, 309. "More than forty Years ago" is too indefinite for present historical Purposes. [55] It has long been perfectly clear that the Devil _did get in his Juggles_, and that he _did_ succeed, almost beyond Belief, in confounding the Understanding of the whole Community, and particularly that of our Author. Respecting Witchcraft in Sweden, &c., consult Dr. Anthony Horneck's _Relation of the Swedish Witches_. [56] It is not strange that English Writers talk about the "Colony of Boston," when our own best informed Natives speak in this careless Manner about the "Province of New-England." [57] The serious Consideration of this Postulate was the primary Cause of the Reaction which followed the Prosecution. See Dr. I. Mather's _Cases of Conscience_. MS. in the Editor's Possession. [58] The Incomprehensibleness of the Creator is nowhere more strikingly expressed than in the following old Lines: What mortal Man can with a Span mete out Eternity? Or fathom it by Depth of Wit or Strength of Memory? The lofty Sky is not so high, Hell's Depth to this is small; The World so wide is but a Stride, compared therewithal. It is a main great Ocean, withouten Bank or Bound: A deep Abyss, wherein there is no Bottom to be found. _Day of Doom_, Edit. 1715, P. 51. [59] In the Notes of Butler and Dr. Nash to _Hudibras_ the Reader will find some Amusement respecting the Witches of Lapland. Although the Laplanders are described as a miserable Race, they could not have been much behind the English in Matters of Superstition at this Period. Dr. Heylyn says the Laplanders, "at their first going out of their Doores in a Morning vse to giue worship and diuine honour all the Day following, to that liuing Creature what ere it be, which they see at their first going out." _Mikrokosmos_, 328, Edit. 1624, 4to. [60] It does not appear to have occurred to the Doctor that a _good Spirit_ might have been the Author of such _darting_ Operations. [61] It would have been gratifying to at least some of the Author's Readers if he had informed them how, where and when he became possessed of the Art of Sorcery, and as he acknowledges having the Art, how he escaped Prosecution. This is _parum claris lucem dare_ indeed. [62] This Hopefulness occasionally breaks out. It ill agrees with the doleful Tone often expressed, in various Parts of the Doctor's Writings--that "New England is on the broad Road to Perdition."