and to devout supplications to the throne of Mercy, for rescue from the power of the great enemy of souls. During the exercises of this occasion, one of the children had frequent and violent convulsion fits. These events soon became generally known in the village, and through the whole surrounding country. The public mind was prepared to sanction the opinion of the physician, and it was universally believed, that the evil one had commenced his operations with a bolder front and on a broader scale than in any previous period.

Great numbers crowded to the spot to gratify their credulous curiosity, by witnessing the effect of his influence upon the afflicted children—and all were anxious to discover by whose cooperation he thus exercised his malignant power. The pretended sufferers were incessantly importuned to declare who afflicted them. Who were the witches through whom the evil.one acted upon them. At length, when they had wrought the people up to a sufficient degree of excitement, they began to select and bring

forward their victims. They first accused, or as the phrase was, 'cried out upon,' an Indian woman attached to Mr Parris' family. By operating upon the old creature's fears and imagination, and as there is some reason to apprehend, by using severe treatment towards her, she was made to confess that the charge was true, and that she was in league with the devil.

All can easily imagine the effect of this confession. It established beyond question or suspicion, the credibility of the accusers, and produced such a thorough conviction of their veracity in the public mind, that if any one still continued to have misgivings or doubts, it seemed to be all in vain, even if he had courage enough to dare to do it, to give them utterance. This state of things emboldened the young girls, and they proceeded to accuse two more decrepid and miserable old women, who were immediately arrested, thrown into prison, and put in irons. In the meantime, new accessions were made to the number of the afflicted accusers, owing either to the inflamed state of the imaginations of

the people, which led them to attribute their various diseases and ailments to the agency of witches, to a mere love of notoriety and a passion for general sympathy, to a desire to be secure against the charge of bewitching others, or to a malicious disposition to wreak vengeance upon enemies.

The next person accused was carried into the meetinghouse in the village, and confronted with the accusers. As soon as the poor old woman was brought in, they uttered loud screams and fell down upon the floor. If in her terror and despair she happened to clasp her hands, they would shriek out that she was pinching them. When she pressed in agony her withered lip, they exclaimed that she was biting them, and would show the marks of her teeth upon their flesh. If the dreadful excitement of the scene, added to the feebleness of age, exhausted and overcame her, and she happened to lean for support against the side of the pew or the aisle, they would cry out that their bodies were crushed; and if she changed her position, or took a single step, they would de

clare that their feet were in pain. In this manner they artfully produced a strong conviction in the minds of the deluded magistrates and excited by-standers. On these occasions the proceedings were always introduced by prayer and addresses from the most influential ministers of the vicinity, who were decided in countenancing and active in promoting them. The afflicted, as they were called, did not rest with merely accusing their victims of having bewitched them, but testified on the stand that they had been present with them at their diabolical meetings, had witnessed them partaking in the visible company of Satan, of his blasphemous sacraments, and had seen them sign his book with their own blood.

The examination of the accused generally took place, as has always been understood, in the house still standing at the western corner of North and Essex Streets, then the residence of Jonathan Corwin, Esq., at that time an acting magistrate. His colleague in the magistracy was John Hathorne, Esq.

It may well be supposed that these events would produce a great sensation throughout

There was no

the colony. They did so. discordance in the public voice, and although many individuals afterwards endeavored to make it appear that they were untouched by the delusion, I am inclined to think with the late Dr Bentley of Salem, that all honorable men and good citizens would prefer to be considered as participating in the excitement, than as having been free from it, and opposed to it, without ever daring to resist or check or reduce it. There were, however, a few who were incredulous from the beginning, and have vindicated their claim to that distinction, by openly advocating their opinions at the time. Among these were the reverend and celebrated Samuel Willard of the Old South church in Boston, who always frowned upon the proceedings, although three of the judges were members of his church; and Major Saltonstall, who publicly expressed his disapprobation by retiring from his seat on the bench. With these and perhaps a few other exceptions, the whole community was convinced of the truth of the accusations, and that there was a dark and dia