There is some obscurity in this quotation, which raises the question whether the witness contradicts herself by stating that at her first interview she believed that her visitant was God himself (as John the Revelator did that a prophet returning from the spirit spheres and appearing to him was God), and her stating again that at the first interview she told him she could not believe that he was God, and proposed to go up and ask her master, Mr. Parris, what he thought about it, but was held back by her spirit-attendants from doing so. There is, we say, obscurity as to whether the account makes her apply both of these opposing statements to her conceptions of her visitor at the first interview with him, or whether it was not till a subsequent meeting that she doubted his Godship. As reported, her examiners are made quite as hard to understand and track as she is in her answers. But, upon a careful reading, we judge it fair and proper to conclude that her doubts concerning the character of her acquaintance were expressed as late as at the meeting on Wednesday, January 20, and not on the previous Friday. "_Q._ When did he say you must meet together? _A._ He tell me Wednesday next, at my master's house; and then we all [did] meet together, and that night I saw them all stand in the corner--all four of them--and the man stand behind me, and take hold of me, and make me stand still in the hall." We now must relinquish doubt as to the meetings at the parsonage, for here we have distinct historical mention of a _circle_, which met "at Mr. Parris's house" for the purpose of practically manifesting the skill and powers, not of learners, but of an expert in the wonders of "necromancy, magic, and especially of _Spiritualism_." This circle met, at five days' notice, on the evening of January 20, 1692. A man, or "something like a man," was at the head of it, and five females, three of them at least embodied ones, were his assistants, or rather were reservoirs from whence he drew forces with which to experiment upon two little mediumistic girls. If a club of women and girls sometimes met for such purposes as are alleged in foregoing citations,--and perhaps it did in a loose, irregular way,--we fancy that Tituba's tutor was ever among them taking notes, scrutinizing their several properties, capabilities, and circumstances, and planning when and how to use them for most efficient accomplishment of his purposes. The fact that he was present as author and master spirit when the first act of the Salem Village tragedy was visibly manifested through the twitchings and contortions of two little girls, is distinctly shown by Tituba's testimony. Therefore henceforth there can be neither historical nor philanthropic justice in imputing to the brains and wills of the little girls what a present and conscious clairvoyant witness imputes distinctly to one who looked "something like a man." Give to