and delusions of an ignorant age, has done incalculable injury, by preventing the progress of Christian truth and sound philosophy; thus promoting the cause of the very infidelity it was intended to check.  The idea of putting down one error by setting up another cannot have suggested itself to any mind that had ever been led to appreciate the value or the force of truth.  But this was the policy of Christian writers from the time of Addison to that of Johnson.  The latter expressly confesses, that it was necessary to maintain the credit of the belief of the existence and agency of ghosts, and other supernatural beings, in order to help on the argument for a future state as founded upon the Bible.

Dr. Hibbert, in his excellent book on the “Philosophy of Apparitions,” illustrates some remarks similar to those just made, by the following quotation from Mr. Wesley:—­

“It is true, that the English in general, and indeed most of the men in Europe, have given up all accounts of witches and apparitions as mere old wives’ fables.  I am sorry for it; and I willingly take this opportunity of entering my solemn protest against this violent compliment, which so many that believe the Bible pay to those who do not believe it.  I owe them no such service.  I take knowledge, these are at the bottom of the outcry which has been raised, and with such insolence spread throughout the nation, in direct opposition, not only to the Bible, but to the suffrage of the wisest and best men in all ages and nations.  They well know (whether Christians know it or not), that the giving up witchcraft is, in effect, giving up the Bible.  And they know, on the other hand, that, if but one account of the intercourse of men with separate spirits be admitted, their whole castle in the air (Deism, Atheism, Materialism) falls to the ground.  I know no reason, therefore, why we should suffer even this weapon to be wrested out of our hands.  Indeed, there are numerous arguments besides, which abundantly confute their vain imaginations.  But we need not be hooted out of one:  neither reason nor religion requires this.”

The belief in witchcraft continued to hold a conspicuous place among popular superstitions during the whole of the last century.  Many now living can remember the time when it prevailed very generally.  Each town or village had its peculiar traditionary tales, which were gravely related by the old, and deeply impressed upon the young.

The legend of the “Screeching Woman” of Marblehead is worthy of being generally known.  The story runs thus:  A piratical cruiser, having captured a Spanish vessel during the seventeenth century, brought her into Marblehead harbor, which was then the site of a few humble dwellings.  The male inhabitants were all absent on their fishing voyages.  The pirates brought their prisoners ashore, carried them at the dead of the night into a retired glen, and there murdered them.  Among the captives was