Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern SpiritualismPutnam, Allen
Religion
Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern Spiritualism
Putnam, Allen
Spiritualism; Witchcraft -- New England
If there exists in the world's annals more distinct testimony that a
particular individual was the deliberate and intentional producer of acts
which generated suffering, than Tituba gave that the "thing like a man,"
which came to her once "when she was about going to sleep," once "in the
lean-to chamber," once "when she was washing the room," and who, on Friday
night, appointed a place for meeting the next Wednesday night, and, with
assistants, kept his appointment, and then and there, as he had
previously announced his purpose to do, severely "hurt the children"--if
there ever was recorded testimony which more distinctly designated a
particular being as the principal in planning and enacting any scheme than
is this from Tituba, by which she designates over and over again "a tall
man with white hair," wearing "black clothes sometimes, and sometimes
serge coat of other color," as the chief executor of the strange and
momentous development of illnesses in the family of Mr. Parris, I know not
where that clearer testimony is recorded. He who ignored several very
significant parts of what Tituba said, rejected corner-stones which are
essential to the foundation of a genuinely philosophical disclosure of the
source and consequent nature of the mysteries he attempted to explain.
Tituba has been described by Upham as "indicating, in most respects, a
mind at the lowest level of general intelligence," so that any one must be
more rash than prudent who will impute to her ability to fabricate a
series of facts, all of which seem to be natural and probable in the
province of psychology.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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