LOST & FOUND † A NOTEBOOK

Mesopotamia, Nimrud (Ancient Kalhu), Neo-Assyrian period (9th—8th Century B.C.) | Head of a Roaring Lion | Ivory

Susanna Martin, pleading Not Guilty to the Indictment of Witchcraft; there were produced the Evidences of many Persons very sensibly and grievously Bewitched; who all complained of the Prisoner at the Bar, as the Person whom they believed the cause of their miseries; the cast of her Eye, then striking the afflicted People to the Ground. There were these among other Passages between the Magistrates and the Examinate: Magistrate: Pray, what ails these people? Martin: I don’t know. Magistrate: But what do you think ails them? Martin: I don’t desire to spend my Judgment upon it. Magistrate: Don’t you think they are bewitch’d? Martin: No, I do not think they are. Magistrate: Tell us your Thoughts about them then. Martin: No, my thoughts are my own, when they are in, but when they are out they are another’s. Their master— Magistrate: Their Master! Who do you think is their Master? Martin: If they be dealing in the Black Art, you may know as well as I. From Cotton Mather On Witchcraft, Being: The Wonders of the Invisible World, published at Boston in October of 1692.