R. C. _Witchcraft is manifestly a Work of the Flesh._ [END OF VOL. II.] FOOTNOTES: [90] The only Mention of the Author of these Letters I have met with is contained in the Answer to the _More Wonders_, by Dr. Mather, and is in this Passage: "The _Anti-scriptural Doctrines_ espoused by this Man [Calef] do also call for no _further Answer_; for a certain _Scotchman_ (one Stuart) of no very great Circumstances, aboard one of our Frigates then in our Harbour, sent him _Two Letters_, which he has been so silly as to insert in his wretched Volume." This "one Stuart" was, perhaps, Chaplain on board the Man-of-war. The Doctor thinks Mr. Calef was very silly to print the Letters, because they were, in his Judgment, a complete Vindication of Witchcraft. Mr. Calef was willing all should be said on that side that could be said. He felt fully convinced that, "Falsehoods which we spurn To-day Were the Truths of Long-ago; Let the dead Bough fall away, Fresher shall the living grow." WHITTIER. [91] Doctor Mather. [92] See _Remarkable Providences_, 128, by Dr. I. Mather. [93] See _Volume_ I, _Pages_ 39-41. [94] See concluding Part of _Note_ 84. [95] If not a mythical Character, he is surrounded with much Mystery. There, however, seems to have been, at some remote Period, a Man named _Ambrose Merlin_, living in Carmarthenshire, in Wales; and it will pay the Reader well to turn to Thomas Fuller, and see what he says about him in his _Worthies_, Vol. III, 524. Among other things he says: "His Extraction is very Incredible, reported to have an Incubus to his Father, pretending to a Pedigree older than Adam, even from the Serpent himself. But a learned Pen demonstrateth the Impossibility of such Conjunctions. And let us not load Satan with groundless Sins, whom I believe the Father of Lies, but no Father of Bastards." A witty Conceit, but ruinous to the Theory of Witchcraft. [96] See Vol. I, _Introduction_, Page xv. The Executions in Scotland were but few Years before those in New England. [97] The same Gentleman mentioned in _Note_ 86, _Page_ 157. [98] Thomas Hobbes, a Native of Malmsbury in Wiltshire, England, born in 1588, and died in 1679. He has been stigmatized as an Unbeliever in Divine Revelation; was a Man of extensive learning, published Works on Philosophy, and translated Homer. [99] Finding themselves in this Dilemma (many of the Believers in Witchcraft never having thought of it, it would seem,) the Advocates must have been sadly puzzled. Nor is it easy to see how, by turning to Locke, Le Clerc, or Cudworth, they are helped at all.