Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern SpiritualismPutnam, Allen
Religion
Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern Spiritualism
Putnam, Allen
Spiritualism; Witchcraft -- New England
to adult age, made profession of religion, and the affliction they had
been under they publicly declared to be one motive to it. One of them I
knew many years after. She had the character of a very virtuous woman, and
never made any acknowledgment of fraud in the transaction."
This historian was born more than twenty years after the "great
consternation" which the Goodwin case occasioned, and therefore those must
have been elderly people who gave him accounts of personal remembrance of
it, and rehearsed to him their mellowed recollections of the past. From
such people he had probably heard many particulars, and received general
impressions which were one source from whence he drew materials for his
history, at least for his comments; also opinions then prevalent around
him were aids to his judgment when reading Mather's account. He omitted to
express directly any doubt as to the occurrence of such facts as the
records presented, but innuendoed, all through his account, that fraud,
acting upon credulity, begat and brought forth that entire brood of
marvels. He left us the facts, and stated that the children were "all
remarkable for ingenuity of temper." Probably his meaning is, that they
were remarkably bright or quick-witted. The historian adds, that they "had
been religiously educated, and were thought to be _without guile_." These
are points of interest both as items on which public judgment concerning
the facts was based at the time of their occurrence, and also as things to
be regarded by moderns when attempting to determine the probability
whether such marvels were produced voluntarily by embodied actors alone,
or by force exerted upon and through mortal forms by wills putting forth
power from imperceptible sources.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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