If there was any thing supernatural in the witchcraft of 1692, if any other than human spirits were concerned at all, one thing is beyond a doubt:  they were shockingly wicked spirits, and led those who dealt with them to the utmost delusion, crime, and perdition; and this example teaches all who seek to consult with spirits, through a medium or in any other way, to be very strict to require beforehand the most satisfactory and conclusive evidence of good character before they put themselves into communication with them.  Spirits who are said to converse with people, in these modern ages, cannot be considered as having much claim to a good repute.  No valuable discovery of truth, no important guidance in human conduct, no useful instruction, has ever been conveyed to mankind through them; and much mischief perhaps may have resulted from confiding in them.  It is not wise to place our minds under the influence of any of our fellow-creatures, in the ordinary guise of humanity, unless we know something about them entitling them to our acquaintance; much less so, to take them into our intimacy or confidence.  Spirits cannot be put under oath, or their credibility be subjected to tests.  Whether they are spirits of truth or falsehood cannot be known; and common caution would seem to dictate an avoidance of their company.  The fields of knowledge opened to us in the works of mortal men; the stores of human learning and science; the pages of history, sacred or profane; the records of revelation; and the instructions and conversation of the wise and good of our fellow-creatures, while in the body,—­are wide enough for our exploration, and may well occupy the longest lifetime.

In its general outlines and minuter details, Salem Witchcraft is an illustration of the fatal effects of allowing the imagination inflamed by passion to take the place of common sense, and of pushing the curiosity and credence of the human mind, in this stage of our being, while in these corporeal embodiments, beyond the boundaries that ought to limit their exercise.  If we disregard those boundaries, and try to overleap them, we shall be liable to the same results.  The lesson needs to be impressed equally upon all generations and ages of the world’s future history.  Essays have been written and books published to prove that the sense of the miraculous is destined to decline as mankind becomes more enlightened, and ascribing a greater or less tendency to the indulgence of this sense to particular periods of the church, or systems of belief, or schools of what is called philosophy.  It is maintained that it was more prevalent in the mediaeval ages than in modern times.  Some assert that it has had a greater development in Catholic than Protestant countries; and some, perhaps, insist upon the reverse.  Some attempt to show that it has manifested itself more remarkably among Puritans than in other classes of Protestant Christians.  The last and most pretentious form of this dogma is,