Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

ΙΟ

15

20

25

30

understanding and crazed imagination, and at the same time reflect upon the many impostures and delusions of this nature that have been detected in all ages, I endeavour to suspend my belief till I hear more certain accounts than any which 5 have yet come to my knowledge. In short, when I consider the question, Whether there are such persons in the world as those we call Witches? my mind is divided between two opposite opinions; or rather (to speak my thoughts freely) I believe in general that there is, and has been, such a thing as Witchcraft; but at the same time can give no credit to any particular instance of it.

I am engaged in this Speculation, by some occurrences that I met with yesterday, which I shall give my Reader an account of at large. As I was walking with my friend Sir ROGER by the side of one of his woods, an old woman applied her self to me for my charity. Her dress and figure put me in mind of the following description in Otway.

In a close lane as I pursu'd my journey,

I spy'd a wrinkled Hag, with age grown double,
Picking dry sticks, and mumbling to her self.
Her eyes with scalding rheum were gall'd and red;
Cold palsy shook her head; her hands seem'd wither'd;
And on her crooked shoulders had she wrapp'd

The tatter'd remnants of an old striped hanging,

Which serv'd to keep her carcass from the cold.
So there was nothing of a piece about her.

Her lower weeds were all o'er coarsly patch'd

With diff'rent colour'd rags, black, red, white, yellow,
And seem'd to speak variety of wretchedness.

As I was musing on this description, and comparing it with the object before me, the Knight told me, that this very old woman had the reputation of a Witch all over the country, that her lips were observed to be always in motion, and that there was not a switch about her house which her neighbours did

5

not believe had carried her several hundreds of miles. If she chanced to stumble, they always found sticks or straws that lay in the figure of a Cross before her. If she made any mistake at church, and cryed Amen in a wrong place, they never failed to conclude that she was saying her prayers backwards. There was not a Maid in the parish that would take a pin of her, though she should offer a bag of money with it. She goes by the name of Moll White, and has made the country ring with several imaginary exploits which are palmed upon her. If the dairy-maid does not make her butter to come so soon as she would have it, Moll White is at the bottom of the churn. a horse sweats in the stable, Moll White has been upon his back. If a hare makes an unexpected escape from the hounds, the Hunts-man curses Moll White. Nay, (says Sir ROGER) I have known the Master of the pack, upon such an occasion, 15 send one of his servants to see if Moll White had been out that morning.

If

This account raised my curiosity so far, that I begged my friend Sir ROGER to go with me into her hovel, which stood in a solitary corner under the side of the wood. Upon our first entering Sir ROGER winked to me, and pointed at something that stood behind the door, which upon looking that way I found to be an old broomstaff. At the same time he whispered me in the ear to take notice of a Tabby cat that sat in the chimney-corner, which, as the Knight told me, lay under as bad a report as Moll White her self; for besides that Moll is said often to accompany her in the same shape, the Cat is reported to have spoken twice or thrice in her life, and to have played several pranks above the capacity of an ordinary Cat.

I was secretly concerned to see humane nature in so much wretchedness and disgrace, but at the same time could not forbear smiling to hear Sir ROGER, who is a little puzzled about the old woman, advising her as a Justice of Peace to avoid all

10

20

25

30

communication with the Devil, and never to hurt any of her neighbours cattle. We concluded our visit with a bounty, which was very acceptable.

In our return home Sir ROGER told me that old Moll had 5 been often brought before him for making children spit pins, and giving maids the night-mare; and that the country people would be tossing her into a pond and trying experiments with her every day, if it was not for him and his Chaplain.

ΙΟ

I have since found, upon enquiry, that Sir ROGER was several times staggered with the reports that had been brought him concerning this old woman, and would frequently have bound her over to the County Sessions, had not his Chaplain with much ado persuaded him to the contrary.

I have been the more particular in this account, because I 15 hear there is scarce a village in England that has not a Moll White in it. When an old woman begins to doat, and grow chargeable to a parish, she is generally turned into a Witch, and fills the whole country with extravagant fancies, imaginary distempers, and terrifying dreams. In the mean time the poor wretch that is the innocent occasion of so many evils, begins to be frighted at her self, and sometimes confesses secret commerces and familiarities that her imagination forms in a delirious old age. This frequently cuts off Charity from the greatest objects of compassion, and inspires people with a malevolence towards those poor decrepid parts of our species, in whom human nature is defaced by infirmity and dotage.

20

25

N° 121. Thursday, July 19. [1711.]

- Jovis omnia plena. Virg.

5

[ocr errors]

As I was walking this morning in the great yard that belongs to my friend's country house, I was wonderfully pleased to see the different workings of Instinct in a Hen followed by a brood of Ducks. The young, upon the sight of a pond, immediately ran into it; while the step-mother, with all imaginable anxiety, hovered about the borders of it, to call them out of an element that appeared to her so dangerous and destructive. As the different principle which acted in these different animals cannot be termed Reason, so when we call it Instinct, we mean something we have no knowledge of. To me, as I hinted in my last paper, it seems the immediate direction of Providence, and such an operation of the supreme Being, as that which determines all the portions of matter to their proper centres. A modern Philosopher, quoted by Monsieur Bayle in his learned dissertation on the Souls of brutes, delivers the same opinion, 15 though in a bolder form of words, where he says, Deus est anima brutorum, God himself is the Soul of brutes. Who can tell what to call that seeming sagacity in Animals, which directs them to such food as is proper for them, and makes them naturally avoid whatever is noxious or unwholsome? Tully has observed that a Lamb no sooner falls from its mother, but immediately and of its own accord applies it self to the teat. Dampier, in his travels, tells us, that when seamen are thrown upon any of the unknown coasts of America, they never venture upon the fruit of any tree, how tempting soever it may 25 appear, unless they observe that it is marked with the pecking of birds; but fall on without any fear or apprehension where the birds have been before them.

20

But notwithstanding Animals have nothing like the use of Reason, we find in them all the lower parts of our nature, the 30

passions and senses in their greatest strength and perfection. And here it is worth our observation, that all beasts and birds of prey are wonderfully subject to anger, malice, revenge, and all other violent passions that may animate them in search of their proper food; as those that are incapable of defending themselves, or annoying others, or whose safety lies chiefly in their flight, are suspicious, fearful, and apprehensive of every thing they see or hear; whilst others that are of assistance and use to man, have their natures softned with something mild and tractable, and by that means are qualified for a domestick life. In this case the passions generally correspond with the make of the body. We do not find the fury of a Lion in so weak and defenceless an animal as a Lamb, nor the meekness of a Lamb in a creature so armed for battle 15 and assault as the Lion. In the same manner, we find that particular animals have a more or less exquisite sharpness and sagacity in those particular senses which most turn to their advantage, and in which their safety and welfare is the most concerned.

10

20

25

30

Nor must we here omit that great variety of arms with which nature has differently fortified the bodies of several kinds of animals, such as claws, hoofs and horns, teeth and tusks, a tail, a sting, a trunk, or a Proboscis. It is likewise observed by Naturalists, that it must be some hidden principle, distinct from what we call Reason, which instructs animals in the use of these their arms, and teaches them to manage them to the best advantage; because they naturally defend themselves with that part in which their strength lies, before the weapon be formed in it; as is remarkable in Lambs, which though they are bred within doors, and never saw the actions of their own species, push at those who approach them with their foreheads, before the first budding of a horn appears.

I shall add to these general observations, an instance which Mr. Locke has given us of Providence, even in the imperfections

« ZurückWeiter »