most common idea has been of a compact entered into by an unprincipled
and impious human being with the sworn enemy of God and man, in the
result of which the devil engages to serve the capricious will and
perform the behests of his blasphemous votary for a certain number of
years, while the deluded wretch in return engages to renounce his God
and Saviour, and surrender himself body and soul to the pains of hell
from the end of that term to all eternity. No sooner do we imagine
human beings invested with these wonderful powers, and conceive them
as called into action for the most malignant purposes, than we become
the passive and terrified slaves of the creatures of our own
imaginations, and fear to be assailed at every moment by beings to
whose power we can set no limit, and whose modes of hostility no human
sagacity can anticipate and provide against. But, what is still more
extraordinary, the human creatures that pretend to these powers have
often been found as completely the dupes of this supernatural
machinery, as the most timid wretch that stands in terror at its
expected operation; and no phenomenon has been more common than the
confession of these allies of hell, that they have verily and indeed
held commerce and formed plots and conspiracies with Satan.

The consequence of this state of things has been, that criminal
jurisprudence and the last severities of the law have been called
forth to an amazing extent to exterminate witches and witchcraft. More
especially in the sixteenth century hundreds and thousands were burned
alive within the compass of a small territory; and judges, the
directors of the scene, a Nicholas Remi, a De Lancre, and many others,
have published copious volumes, entering into a minute detail of the
system and fashion of the witchcraft of the professors, whom they sent
in multitudes to expiate their depravity at the gallows and the stake.