The Mine! whatc'er the Muse inspires,
Mv soul the tuneful strain dinircs....M orr.
A NIGHT AT VKMCi: n i:w viitx.
Around me are the stars and waters
Worlds mirrorM in the ocean, goodlier sight
Than torches glared batk by a gaudy g!a.s ;
And the great clement, which is to space
"What ocean is to earth, spreads its blue depths,
Soften'd with the first breathings of the spring ;
The high moon sails upon her beauteous way,
Serenely smoothing o'er the lofty walls
Of these piles and sea-girt palaces,
"Whose porphyry pillars, and v hose costly fronts,
Fraught, v ith the orient pearls of many marbles,
JLikc altars rangd along the broad canal,
Seem such a tropliy of sonic mighty deed
Rear'd up from out the waters, scarce less
strangely
Than those more massy and mysterious giants
Of architecture, those 1 itanian fabrics,
"Which point in Kgypt's plains to times that have
No other record. All is gentle : nought
Stirs rudely ; but, congenial with the night,
"Whatever walks is gliding like a spirit.
The tinklings of some vigilant guitars
Of sleepless lovers to a wakeful mistress,
And cautious opening of the casement shouing
That he is not unheard; while her young hand,
Fair as the moonlight, of which it seems a part,
So delicately white, it trembles in
The act of opening a forbidden lattice,
To let in love though music makes his heatt
Thrilllike his lvrc -string at the sight the dah
Phosphoric of the oar, or rapid twinkle
Of the fair lights of skimming gondolas,
And the responsive voice of the choir
Of boatmen answering back with verse for verse,
Some dusky shadow chequering the Kialto,
Some glimmering palace roof, or tapering spire
Arc all the sights and sounds which here pervade
The ocean-born and earth commanding city
Now will 1 to my couch, although to rest
Is almost wronging such a night as this .
Variety's the very spice of life,
That trics it all its flavor.
rt
Trom the New-York Daily Advertiser.
YVITCIICUAVT.
The following concise !". story of "Witchcraft,
as it occurred jin the province of Massat husctts
Bav, from the middle to near the close of the
17th century, is copied from President 13 wight's
Travels, the first volume of w hich has just been
published. As it is the only connected account
of this extraordinary infatuation that we have
ever met with, we think it will prove amusing to
our readers.
" From the year 1G45, when the first
suspicion of witchcraft in New-England
began at Springfield, several per
sons were accused of this crime. Of
those who were accur.cd, four (to wit,
one at Charleston, one at Dorchester,
one at Cambridge, ard o:e at Boston,)
were executed. For almost thirty
years afterwards, the subject seems to
have slept in tolerable quiet. But in
the year 168T, or 1GSS, four of the
children of John Goodwin, a respect
able inhabitant of Boston, united in
accusing a poor Irish woman of be
witching them. The accusation was
unhappily regarded with an attention,
whi.o it very ill deserved. Not only
did the citizens in the neighborhood
treat the subject as a thing of conse
quence ; but a number of the clergy
hw-ld a day of fasting and prayer on the
ore ision ; t the house of ?lr. Goodwin.
This unhappy measure gave the affair
a solemn aspect at once. The poor
woman, who seems to have been stupi
fied with terror, or bewildered by dis
traction, was apprehended. An inquest
of physicians pronounced her to be of
sound mind. In consequence of this
decision she was tried and executed.
An account of the whole transaction
was published ; and so generally were
the wise and good, as well as the weak
and w icked of this country convinced
of the reality of witchcraft, that we
find, not only Mr. Baxter writing a
preface to theaccount, and declaring
mm wno would not oelieve it, to be an
obdurate Sadducee, but Glanville pub
lishing stories of witches ; Sir Mat
thew Hale trying in the Court of King's
Bench ; several eminent Lawyers lav
ing down rules for convicting them ;
and several grave Clergymen, such as
Perkins and Bernard, undertaking to
prove the existence, and defining th
ch aracteristics, evidences, and bounda
ries, of witchcraft. With all these
preparatives, it cannot be surprising.
that at a time, when the reality of
witchcraft had never been questioned.
and in a country, where it scarcclv
ever had been doubted, the case of
these children should make a deep im
pression. The same general convic
tion prevailed every where. Every
where persons suspected of being
.vitches, and wizzards, were tried,
condemned, and executed, by the au
thority of the first tribunals of Eu
J it i... ..r ........
rope, as vcu a-j uulmui juuiuuu
ries. In England more persons were
executed in a single county, than in all
the colonies cf New-England, from the
arrival of the Plymouth settlers, to the
present time.
The truth, as everv intelligent and
candid man will acknowledge, is : the
existence of witchcraft had never been
taken uo bv the human mind as a sub-
ect of investigation. This capital
point had been uniformly omitted ;
and "every inquirer, instead of exam
ining whether there wa
anv such
thing as witchcraft, directed all his ef
forts to determine what were its cau
ses, characteristics, proofs, limits, and
effects. Where such was the nature
of discussions, formed by Statesmen,
Judges, Lawvcrs. and Divines ; the
only proper, question concerning this
subject must, it is obvious, be natur
ally, and universally forgotten.
Near the close of February, 1692,
tA. ,ris, auout eleven years oi age,
(a daughter and a niece of Mr. Paris,
minister of Paris, then Salem village,)
and two other girls in the neighbour
hood, began, as the children of IWr.
Goodwin had done before, to act in a
peculiar and unaccountable manner ;
creeping, for example, into holes, and
under chairs, using many unnatural
gestures, and uttering many ridiculous
observations, equally destitute of sense
and sobriety. This behaviour excited
the attention of the neighborhood.
Several physicians were consulted ; all
of whom, except one, declared them
selves unable to assign a cause for
these singular affections of the chil-jbe
dren. This man, more ignorant or
more superstitious than his companions,
confessed his suspicion, that the chil
dren were bewitched. The declara
tion appears to have been decisive.
The connections of the children im
mediately applied themselves to fast
ing and prayer ; and summoned their
friends to unite with them in their de
votions. On the 11th of the follow
ing March, Mr- Paris invited several
of the neighboring ministers to unite
with him in prayer at his own house.
It was observed, that during the reli
gious exercises the children were gen
erally decent and still ; and that after
the service was ended they renewed
their former inexplicable conduct.
A few days before this, an Indian
man and woman, servants in the house ;
of Mr. Paris, formed a kind of mag- j the only basis of a train of capital con
ical cake, which, like the mzla among , victions. Children, incapable of un
the Romans, wis esteemed sacred in 1 derstanding the things about which
Mexico, the native country of the wo-
man : and was supposed hy these ig-1 the only witnesses ; and what was still
norant creatures to possess an efficacy,' worse, the very things which they tes
sufficient to detect the authors of the tified were put into their minds and
witchcraft. This cake was given to mouths .by the examiners, in the ques
the house dog, as having the common tions which they asked. In one case,
canine prerogative of corresponding a man named Samuel Wardwell, was
with the invisible world. Soon after tried, condemned, and executed, on
tne spe
11 was finished, the children ac -
nunintcd, probably, with its drift, and
thcrciore naturally considering this as
he proper time to make disclosures,
began to point out the authors of their
misfortunes The first nerson accused
as the Indian woman herself ; w ho
war, accordingly committed to prison ;
and after lying there sometime, escap
ed without any further punishment,
except being sold to defray the expense
of her prosecution.
Two other women of the names of
Good and Osborn, one long sunk in
melancholy, the other bedrid, were
next accused by the children ; and af
ter being examined were also commit
ted to prison. Within five weeks, a
Mrs. Corey, and a Mrs. Nurse, wo
men of unblemished character, and
professors of religion, were added to
the number of the accused. Before
the examination of Mrs. Corev, Mr.
Noyes, minister of Salem, highly es
teemed for his learning, and benevo
lence, made a prayer. She was then
vehemently accused by Mrs. Putnam,
the mother of one of them, and by
several other persons, who now declar
ed themselves bewitched, of beating,
pinching, strangling, and in various
other ways afflicting them.
Mrs. Putnam, particularly, com
plained of txcruciati. g distress ; and
with loud piercing shrieks, excited in
the numerous spectators emotions of
astonishment, pity, and indignation,
bordering upon frenzy. ?Irs. Corev
was, of course, pronounced guilty, and
imprisoned.
The examination of Mrs. Nurse
was introduced by a prayer from Mr.
Hale of Beverly. The accusation, the
answers, the proof, and the consequen
ces, were the same.
Soon after her commitment, a child
of Sarah Good, the melancholy wo
man mentioned above, between four
and five years old, was accused by the
same women of bewitching them, and
accordingly was imprisoned.
In the mean time fasts were multi
plied. Several public ones were kept
by the inhabitants ot the village ; and
final! v a general fast was held through
out the colony. By these successive
solemnities the subject acquired a con
sideration literally sacred ; and alarm
ed and engrossed the minds of the
whole community. Magistrates and
Clergymen gave it the weight of their
belief, and their reputation ; led their
.ellow-citizens into a laoyrmth oi er
ror and iniquity ; and stained the char
acter of their country in the eye of all
succeeding generations.
Had Mr. Paris, instead of listening
to the complaints of the children in his
family, and holding days of fasting
and prayer on so preposterous an oc
casion, corrected them severely ; had
the physician mentioned above, instead j
of nronouncinir them bewitched, ad- I
-j - - j .
ministered to them a strong dose of
Ipecacuanha ; had the magistrates who
received the accusations, and examined
the accused, dismissed both, and order-
ed the accusers to prison ; or finally,
had the Judges of the Superior Court
directed the first indictment to be
quashed, and sent the prisoners home ; merely to save themselves. Among
..It i
the evil, in cither of these stages, might i tne accused not a small numoer con
undoubtedly have been stopped. But, i f essed themselves guilty for the same
unhappily, all these were efforts of rea- !
son, which lay beyond the spirit ot the
times.
That Mr. Paris, Mr. Noyes, and
Mr. Hale, believed the existence of
the witchcraft in Salem Village, cannot
questioned. That they seem to
have been men of a fair religious char
acter must be acknowledged. But, it
must also be acknowledged, that both
they and Messrs. Hawthorn and Cor- I proceedings were rash and indefensi
win, the magistrates principally con- j ble. Mr. Hale probably changed his
cerncd, men of good character like- ; opinion because his wife was accused,
wise, were, in the present case, rash and The same consideration undoubtedly
inexcusable. j influenced Sir William Phipps. A
Thev were not merely deceived ;; respectable man in Boston having been
but they deceived themselves, and in-
fatuated others. They were not mere
ly zealous, but unjust. They received,
from persons unknown, in judicial pro- ! pounds. In consequence of this spir
ceedings as witnesses, evidence equal- j ited conduct, the frenzy in that town
ly contradictory to law, to common I disappeared. In other places the dis-
J - r, . . .1 r V . 1 1
sense, and to the scriptures. Spectral
evidence, as it was termed ; that is, ev
idence founded on apparitions, and
other supernatural appearances, pro
fessed to be seen bv the accusers : was
they gave testimony were yet, at times,
thc testimony of his wife and dan eh-
ter, who appear to have accused him
merely for the sake of saving them
selves. Soon after the above examinations,
the number of accusers, and by neces
sary consequence, of the accused also,
multiplied to a most alarming degree.
To recite the story would be useless,
as well as painful. In substance, it
would be little else than what has been
already said. All those who were
i executed denied the charge, and final-
ly declared their innocence ; although
several of them, in the moment of ter
ror, had made partial confessions of
their guilt. A considerable number,
for the same purpose, acknowledged
themselves guilty, and thus escaped
death. To such a degree did the fren
zy prevail, that in the January follow
ing, the grand jury indicted almost 50
persons for witchcraft.
Nor was the evil confined to this
neighborhood. It soon spread into
various parts of Essex, Middlesex,
and Suffolk. Persons at Andover,
Ipswich, Gloucester, Boston, and sev
eral other places, were accused by
their neighbors, and others. For some
time, the victims were selected from
the lower classes. It was not long,
however, before the spirit of accusa
tion began to lay hold of persons of
more consequence. On the 5th of
August, 1 ), Mr. George Burroughs,
who had formerly preached in Salem
Village, and after at Wells, in the
Province of Maine, was brought to
trial for bewitching Mary Wolcott, an
inhabitant of the Village, and was
condemned. Mr. English, a respect-
able merchant in Salem, and his wife ;
Messrs. Dudley and John Bradstreet,
sons of the late Gov. Bradstreet ; the
wife of Mr. Hale; the lady of Sir
Wm. Phipps; and the Secretary of
Connecticut ; were all among the ac
cused. Mr. English and his wife fled
to New-York. Mr. Dudley Brad
street had already committed between
30 and 40 persons for this supposed
crime ; but beintr weary and discoura
ged, declined any further interference
in the business. Upon this he was
charged with having killed nine per
sons by witchcraft, and was obliged to
flee to the province of Maine. His
brother John, being accused of having
bewitched a dog and riding upon hi
back, fled into New-Hampshire. At
Andover, a dog was accused ol be
witching several human beings and put
to death.
The evil now became too great to be
borne. A man named Giles Corey,
had been pressed to death for refusing
to plead ; and 19 persons had been ex
ecuted. INI ore than one third of these
were members of the christian church ;
and more than one half had borne an
unblemished character. One hundred
and fifty were in prison ; two hundred
others were accuseu. ouspense ana
terror spread through the Colony.
Neither age nor sex, neither ignorance
nor innocence, neither learning nor
piety, neither reputation nor oihe
ft -
furnished the least security. Multi
tudes appear to have accused others
reason ; for by a strange inversion of
judicial process, tnose wno confessed
the crime escaped; while those who
protested their innocence died without
proof, and witnout rnercv
While th e miscnief was thus rollinc.
up to a mountainous size, the principal
persons in the colony began seriously
to ask themselves where it would end.
A conviction began to spread that the
j accused by some persons at Andover,
arrested his accusers for defamation.
and laid his damages at a thousand
tresses, the fair character and the ap
! parent innocence of many of the suf-
lerers, wrought silently but poweriuuy
on the people at large. At the last
special court of Oyer and Terminer
holden on this subject, ot htty who
were brought to trial, all were ac
quitted, except three ; and these were
reprieved by the Governor. These
events were followed by a general re
lease of those who had been imprison
ed. Thus the cloud which had so
long hung over the colony slowly and
sullenly retired; and like the darkness
of Egypt, was, to the great joy of the
distressed inhabitants, succeeded by se
renity and sun shine.
At this period and for some time
after attempts were made in various
places to revive these prosecutions ;
but they failed of success. It has
been said that an inhabitant of North
ampton accused another of bewitch
ing him, to the Hon. Mr. Patridge, a
very respectable magistrate in Hatfield.
This gentleman, understanding per
fectly the nature of the accusation,
and foreseeing the mischiefs which
would spring from any serious atten
tion to it, told the accuser that as it
was out of his power to try the case
immediately, he would hold a court
at Northampton for that purpose on a
specified day of the succeeding week ;
but that he could now finish a part of
the business. It was a rule he said
that the informant should in various
cases receive half of what was ad
judged. A person convicted of witch
craft was bv law punished with twenty
stripes. He should therefore order
ten to the accuser. They were ac
cordingly inflicted on the spot. At
the appointed time the court was open
ed at Northampton, but no accuser ap
peared. This confessedly illegal, but
exemplarily wise and just administra
tion, smothered the evil here in its
birth. Had measures equally wise
been adopted throughout the colony.
the story of New-England witchcraft
would never have been told. From
this period the belief of witchcraft
seems gradually and almost entirely to
have vanished from New-England.
There is perhaps no country in the
world, whose inhabitants treat the
j whole train of invisible beings which
people the regions of superstition and
1 -1 . . . V 1-
creuuuty with less respect, or w no uis-
tinguish religion from its counterfeits
with more universality or correctness.
VROI THE BALTIMOUE .lORXIXG CHI-ONI CLE.
That there should be one day in se
ven, on which all the common worldly
cares and anxieties should be allowed
to rest on which we are not suffered
by the laws of the land to encounter
the perplexities of our usual avoca
tions, and on which wc are reminded
bv the messengers of divine grace from,
the pulpit, that this is but typical of that
eternal Sabbath that awaits the right
eous man : All this must be considered
as the peculiar and di 'hguisj.ing feli
city of the Christian.. 3 ,nce in every
seven days, he feels himself in compa
ny with men who possess, like himself,
immortal souls, and who are, at the
same time, as busily engaged in enquir
ing out the road to salvation. In the.
church, we may look tor the natural
equality of man. Kings and subjects,
the poor and the rich, the master and
servant, all lay down their respective
honours and dignities, and the badges
of their servitude, at the footstool of
Calvary. Here the monarch throws
by his crown and sceptre, and the slave
his fetters and chains. Furthermore,
each of these parties derive, at such
seasons, the most consolatory reflec-
tions ; the lords of the earth are remin
ded, that, in the midst of all their glo
ry and greatness, they are dying men ;
that they are hastening to the place
where popular applause and the gran
deur of the world will avail them noth
ing ; the poorest man is reminded that
the crov.Tn that glitters on the temple of
the monarch, is but a pitiful emblem of
that eternal crown which awaits virtu
ous poverty in another and a better ex
istence. He is told of the promises of
a King that cannot lie, and whose word
will survive the extinction of the sun,
and the dissolution of the rolling universe-
He is told that he is to be made
the future companion of saints, of an
gels, and the spirits of just men made
perfect ; that those christian patriots,
saints and martyrs, who have fought
the good fight of faith, and left behind
the splendors of their example to shine
like stars in the moral firmament, are
only gone before to await, with shouts
of acclamation, his arrival in the re
gions of the blest. The Sabbath is the
day devoted to such enjoyments ; and
in the same proportion as the lustre of
the noon day sun exceeds the lustre
of the glowworm, does the joy of the
Sabbath, to the mind of a religious
man, exceed every other enjoyment.
He calls the day peculiarly and emphat
ically his own ; he feels at this time the
dignity of his nature ; his consolation
amidst the cares and vicissitudes of
life, and his assurance in the protecting
mercies and the superintending care of
his Father and his God. Well may
the idolator of the world believe that
die Sabbath is a dull and irksome day ;
he can, on this day, make no contract ;
he cannot amass, still more, his golden
gains, and he knows of no other deity
to worship. He looks, with anxiety
for the rising of one more sun when
he may not be compelled to think of
eternal things ; when he may be allow
ed to grasp and hoard and die with his
cold hand upon his gold. To the son
of pleasure and dissipation, the Sab
bath likewise affords no rest. He does
not wish to believe, what he is then
told, that he is growing hoary in the
pursuit of butterflies throughout all the
roseate bowers of enjoyment ; that the
ruddy face of female beauty which he
admires, will soon be ploughed with
the wrinkles of age ; that the limbs
which moved down the dance with
such elastic energy, will soon require
the aid of crutches; all these are un
welcome, are bitter truths : and what
is the future society of saints, of angels
and glorified spirits, to him whose
highest ambition is to go smiling, dan
cing and carousing to his grave ; whose
whole morality can be summed up in
one short and mean sentence a short
life and a merry one. These are en
joyments, for the absence of which, to
such a man, the joys of heaven proffer
no indemnity, no remuneration, no
compensation, no attractive delights ;
to laugh and smile, and dissipate and
die, constitute the summum of his
wishes the ne plus ultra of his felici
ty ; what is the Sabbath to the mon
key who can only dance, or the swine
who can only grunt and gorge his ap-.
petite ?
Avoid the friendship of a fool. Even w hen
he means to serve, he will probably injure yoa.