The next champion in this unpopular cause, John Wagstaffe, who published “The Question of Witchcraft Debated,” 1669, 12mo,[22] was, as A. a Wood informs us, “the son of John Wagstaffe, citizen of London, descended from those of his name of Hasland Hall, in Derbyshire, was born in Cheapside, within the city of London, became a commoner of Oriel College in the latter end of 1649, took the degrees in Arts, and applied himself to the study of politics and other learning.  At length, being raised from an academical life to the inheritance of Hasland, by the death of an uncle, who died without male issue, he spent his life afterwards in single estate.”  His death took place in 1677.  The Oxford historian, who had little reverence for new lights, and never loses an opportunity of girding at those whose weights and measures were not according to the current and only authentic standard, has left no very flattering account of his person.  “He was a little crooked man, and of a despicable presence.  He was laughed at by the boys of this University, because, as they said, he himself looked like a little wizard.”  Small as might be his stature, and questionable the shape in which he appeared, he might still have taken up the boast of the author of the Religio Medici:  “Men that look upon my outside do err in my altitude, for I am above Atlas’s shoulders.”  None but a large-souled and kindly-affectioned man, whose intellect was as comprehensive as his feelings were benevolent, could have produced the excellent little treatise which claims him as its author.  The following is the lofty and memorable peroration in which he sums up the strength of his cause:—­

“I cannot think without trembling and horror on the vast numbers of people that in several ages and several countries have been sacrificed unto this idol, Opinion.  Thousands, ten thousands, are upon record to have been slain, and many of them not with simple deaths, but horrid, exquisite tortures.  And yet, how many are there more who have undergone the same fate, of whom we have no memorial extant.  Since, therefore, the opinion of witchcraft is a mere stranger unto Scripture, and wholly alien from true religion; since it is ridiculous by asserting fables and impossibilities; since it appears, when duly considered, to be all bloody and full of dangerous consequence unto the lives and safety of men; I hope that with this my Discourse, opposing an absurd and pernicious error, I can not at all disoblige any sober, unbiassed person; especially if he be of such ingenuity as to have freed himself from a slavish subjection unto those prejudicial opinions which custom and education do with too much tyranny impose.—­If the doctrine of witchcraft should be carried up to a height, and the inquisition after it should be intrusted in the hands of ambitious, covetous and malicious men, it would prove of far more fatal consequence unto the lives and safety of mankind, than that ancient, heathenish