different ages and countries, upon the accusation of having exercised
arts of the most immoral and sacrilegious character. They were
supposed to have formed a contract with a mighty and invisible spirit,
the great enemy of man, and to have sold themselves, body and soul, to
everlasting perdition, for the sake of gratifying, for a short term of
years, their malignant passions against those who had been so
unfortunate as to give them cause of offence. If there were any
persons who imagined they had entered into such a contract, however
erroneous was their belief, they must of necessity have been greatly
depraved. And it was but natural that such as believed in this crime,
must have considered it as atrocious beyond all others, and have
regarded those who were supposed guilty of it with inexpressible
abhorrence. There are many instances on record, where the persons
accused of it, either from the depth of their delusion, or, which is
more probable, harassed by persecution, by the hatred of their
fellow-creatures directed against them, or by torture, actually
confessed themselves guilty. These instances are too numerous, not to
constitute an important chapter in the legislation of past ages. And,
now that the illusion has in a manner passed away from the face of the
earth, we are on that account the better qualified to investigate this
error in its causes and consequences, and to look back on the tempest
and hurricane from which we have escaped, with chastened feelings, and
a sounder estimate of its nature, its reign, and its effects.




AMBITIOUS NATURE OF MAN