Joseph Glanvill

“ For there is no such abomination in adventuring to tell, when the wild Geese fly high in great Companies and cackle much, that hard weather is at Hand. But to rid Serpents by a Charm is above the power of Nature; and therefore an indication of one that has the assistance of some invisible Spirit to help him in this exploit, as it happens in several others; and therefore this is another name of one that is really a Witch. ”

“ As if a merry Juggler that plays tricks of Legerdemain at a Fair or Market, were such an abomination to either the God of Israel or to his Lawgiver Moses; or as if an Hocus-Pocus were so wise a weight as to be consulted as an Oracle: For it is said v. 14. For the Nations which thou shalt possess they consult מצובבים [Megnonenim] What, do they consult Jugglers and Hocus-Pocusses? No certainly they consult Witches or Wizzards, and Diviners, as Anne Styles did Anne Bodenham. Wherefore here is evidently a second name of a Witch. ”

“ Glanvil, the other to my self, which are subjoined to the said Preface: Which thing alone may justly be deemed to add a very great weight to the value, as of that Story so of this present Edition; but I will not upon pretence of exciting thy Appetite keep thee from the satisfying it by an overlong Preface, which yet, if it may seem to be defective in any thing, the Doctor's Letter (where amongst other things you shall meet with that famous and well attested Story of the Apparition of Anne Walker's Ghost to the Miller) will, I hope, make an abundant supply. ”

“ So that a Witch, thus far, is no more than a knowing Woman; which answers exactly to the Latine word Saga, according to that of Festus, Sagæ dictæ anus quæ multa sciunt. Thus in general: But Use questionless had appropriated the Word to such a kind of skill and knowledge as was out of the common road, or extraordinary. Nor did this peculiarity imply in it any unlawfulness. But there was after a further restriction and most proper of all, and in which alone now adays the words Witch and Wizzard are used. ”

“ But that without this Carnal transmutation, a Woman might not be accounted a Witch, is so foolish a Supposition, that Webster himself certainly must be ashamed of it.
Wherefore if his Book be Writ only to prove there is no such thing as a Witch that Covenants in Parchment with the Devil by the Advice of a Lawyer, and is Really and Carnally turned into a Dog, Cat, or Hare, &c. and with carnal Lips sucked by the Devil, and is one with whom the Devil lies Carnally; the Scope thereof is manifestly impertinent, when neither Dr. Casaubon, nor any one else holds any such thing. ”

“ Smart, who affirms that he heard one Mr. Fairhair give Evidence upon Oath, that he saw the likeness of a Child stand upon Walker's Shoulders during the time of the Trial: It is likely this Mr. Fairhair might be the Fore-man of the Jury, and in that the Judge was so very much troubled, that himself also might see the same Apparition as Webster says report went, though the mistake in Mr. Webster is, that it was the Apparition of a Woman ”

“ Here because קסם sometimes has an indifferent sence, and signifies to divine by natural Knowledge or humane Prudence or Sagacity; therefore nothing of such a Witch as is imagined to make a visible League with the Devil, or to have her Body fuck'd by him, or have carnal copulation with him, or is really turned into a Cat, Hare, Wolf or Dog, can be deduced from this Word. ”

“ Lo another Word that signifies a Witch or a Wizzard, which has its name properly from imposing on the sight, and making the By-stander believe he sees Forms or Transformations of things he sees not. As when Anne Bodenham transform'd her self before Anne Styles in the shape of a great Cat; Anne Styles her sight was so imposed upon, that the thing to her seem'd to be done, though her Eyes were only deluded. But such a delusion certainly cannot be performed without confederacy with evil Spirits. ”

“ To which she said, I am the Spirit of such a Woman who lived with Walker, and being got with Child by him, he promised to send me to a private place, where I should be well lookt to till I was brought in Bed and well again, and then I should come again and keep his House. And accordingly, said the Apparition, I was one Night late sent away with one Mark Sharp, who upon a Moor, naming a place that the Miller knew, flew at me with a Pick, such as Men dig Coals withal, and gave me these five Wounds, and after threw my Body into a Coal-pit hard by, and hid the Pick under a Bank ”

“ Indeed, if there were any Modesty left in Mankind, the Histories of the Bible might abundantly assure Men of the Existence of Angels and Spirits; but these Wits, as they are taken to be, are so jealous forsooth, and so sagacious, that whatever is offered to them by way of established Religion, is suspected for a piece of Politick Circumvention ”

“ The Wicked fear where no fear is, but God is in the Generation of the Righteous; and he that fears God and has his Faith in Jesus Christ, need not fear how many Devils there be, nor be affraid of himself or own his Imnmortality ”

“ But tho' the learned World may very well lament the loß of so able and ingenious a Writer, yet as to this present point, if that may mitigate thy Sorrow, in all likelihood this Book had not seen the light so soon, if he had lived; so many emergent Occasions giving him new Interruptions, and offering him new Temptations to further delay: Indeed it had been desirable that it might have had the Polishing of his last Hand, as the Peruser of his Papers signifies in his last Advertisement ”

“ In the Morning he went to a Magistrate and made the whole Matter known with all the Circumstances; and diligent search being made, the Body was found in a Coal-pit with five Wounds in the Head, and the Pick and Shoes and Stockings yet bloody, in every Circumstance as the Apparition had related unto the Miller; whereupon Walker and Mark Sharp were both Apprehended, but would confess nothing. At the Assizes following, I think it was at Durham, they were Arraigned, found Guilty, Condemn'd and Executed ”

“ Webster makes it a long time.
Two Errours also more are corrected in Mr. Webster's Narration by Mr. Lumley's Testimony; the distance of the Miller from Lumley, where Walker dwelt, which was six Miles, not two Miles as Mr. Webster has it; and also that it was not a Mill to grind Corn in, but a Fullers Mill, the Apparition Night by Night pulling the Cloths off Gralmes's Bed, omitted in Mr. Webster's Story, may be supplied out of Mr. Lumley's, and Mr. Smart's Testimony puts it out of Controversie that the Trial was at Durham and before Judge Davenport, which is ommitted by Mr. Webster. ”

“ And forasmuch as such course grain'd Philosophers as those Hobbians and Spinozians, and the rest of the Rable, slight Religion and the Scriptures, because there is such express mention of Spirits and Angels in them, things that their dull Souls are so inclinable to conceit to be imposable ”

“ Shepherdson, is this, I have done what I can to inform my self of the Passage of Sharp and Walker; there are very few Men that I could meet that were then Men, or at the Tryal, saving these two in the inclosed Paper, both Men at that time, and both at the Trial; and for Mr. Lumley, he lived next door to Walker, and what he hath given under his Hand, can depose if there were occasion. ”

“ But though that cannot be deduced, yet in that, this Divination that is here forbidden, is plainly declared abominable and execrable, as it is v. 12. it is manifest that such a Divination is understood that really is so; which cannot well be conceived to be, unless it imply either an express or implicite inveaglement with some evil invisible Powers who assist any kind of those Divinations that may be comprehended under this general Term. ”

“ But however, be they as averse as they will, being this is the most accommodate Medicine for this Disease, their diligence and care of mankind is much to be commended that make it their business to apply it, and are resolv'd, though the pevishness and perversness of the Patients makes them pull off their Plaister, as they have this excellent one of the Story of the Dæmon of Tedworth by decrying it as an Imposture, so acknowledged by both your self and Mr. ”