Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern Spiritualism Part 8

Similar preservation of flesh and strength, amid fastings and most excessive activity, are frequent experiences to-day with the highly mediumistic, especially in the earlier stages of their dominations by invisibles.

Speech came from her without motion of her vocal organs. That much may pertain to simple ventriloquence; but Mr. Willard says also that "we observed, when the voice spoke, her throat was swelled formidably, at least as big as one's fist." Ventriloquence has not usually such an adjunct as that. Moreover, the minister was convinced that the utterings were prompted by other will than hers.

This girl's experience abounds in evidences that her spirit faculties of perception were so freed from hamperings by the outer body, that she could consciously see, hear, and converse with spirits, and that her physical system was subject to control by them for speech in varied forms and modes, and for strange and violent action by her limbs.

In parts of the narrative which we have not copied, it appears that accusation came from her lips that Mr. Willard himself and some other G.o.dly ones in his parish were her tormentors. This was saying to Samuel in most startling manner, as one of old did to David, "_Thou art the man_;"

for at that day faith was common that the devil had not power to accuse a G.o.dly person, could not indeed accuse any others than guilty ones of being contributors to outworkings of witchcraft. If the announcement was true, Mr. Willard and other good ones, according to the faith of some at that day, were covenanters with the devil. It was a fearful moment when such accusation of the good clergyman fell upon his ears from the lips of his tortured pupil. His resort, and that of another accused one, was to prayer; and we can readily fancy that pet.i.tions heavenward then rose up from the lowest depths of true and earnest souls, and went forth, in the girl's presence, with such psychologizing power as loosened the hold of any spirit possessing her form, and allowed her to regain full possession and control of all her normal powers.

This subject of spirit control retained consciousness during her entrancements, or during the times when her body was subject to a will not her own, as many mediums do at this day. Consequently she would possess more or less knowledge of whatever was said or done by her organs and limbs, whoever controlled them. Being young, she could scarcely be competent to make, and keep in remembrance, the broad severance of her individual responsibility for what was done by others and what by herself, through use of her own physical faculties. It was natural--almost necessary--that she should become self-condemnatory for having had done through her what gave distress and anguish to her friends, even though she had lent no voluntary aid to the deeds, nor had power to prevent their being enacted.

We presume her statement was true that Mr. Willard and the others then accused were, though unconsciously, made to be contributors of aid to the controllers of his pupil; true that she felt the workings of emanations from them. Twenty years afterward an "afflicted" one in Salem Village began to cry out upon this same man as being one of her afflicters. And why? Because, probably, of const.i.tutional properties in him which spirits could avail themselves of as helps for entrancing or controlling mediumistic persons. The laws which governed detection of tormentors of the bewitched will come under more extended consideration in subsequent parts of our work. Results indicate that Samuel Willard's system possessed either material or psychic properties, or both, which exposed him to accusation of bewitching some sensitives, whose perceptive powers could trace back to their source any mesmerizing forces that entered into and acted efficiently upon their own systems.

In his usual temper and judgment witchward, Hutchinson p.r.o.nounced the sufferings of Elizabeth Knap "fraud, imposture, and ventriloquism"! Shade of Samuel Willard! How look you now, and how shall we mortals look upon the man, who, ninety years after your day, casting a glance backward into the darkened chambers of the long past, perceived yourself to have been a credulous dolt and simpleton, unable, by eleven weeks' close study and vigilant watch, to determine that the source of marvelous phenomena manifested in your own domicile, before your own attentive eyes, was exclusively mundane? From looking at the occurrences, as they lay dormant and half buried under the dust which ninety full years had been throwing over them, Hutchinson saw at a glance that they were nothing but frauds, impostures, and ventriloquism. You, Rev. Sir, at first doubted their supermundane source, but study of and deliberate reflection upon them for weeks satisfied you that your doubts were untenable; you obviously was devoid of such credulity as enabled Hutchinson to very promptly obtain conviction that your Elizabeth was but an actor of fraud and imposture.

Alas for your sagacity, Samuel Willard!

Upham makes no account of either Ann Cole or Elizabeth Knap, though these were decidedly the best American prototypes of the magic-taught girls in Salem Village, whose schemings and exploits he dwells upon at great length. He claims that the witchcraft generators and enactors there studied, schemed, and practiced in concert at "a circle," and thus learned how, and by what means, to originate and perform it. All known circ.u.mstances conspire to indicate that neither Ann Cole nor Elizabeth Knap had either visible teachers or co-operators in their marvelous operations. Therefore, had the historian adduced those two cases--these good exemplars of the performers at Salem--perhaps he would have been asked who trained the isolated performers twenty and thirty years before a necromantic seminary had been founded, at which the arts of magic, necromancy, and Spiritualism could be taught and learned. Was there anywhere a prior inst.i.tution of that kind? If not, then we ask, was any circle kindred to that at Salem an essential--a _sine qua non_--to acquiring competency for skillful practice of witchcraft? or of acts called witchcraft of old? May not natural endowments sometimes be ample qualification for admitting the evolvement through one's form of very great marvels? If not, the sporadic performances at Hartford and Groton are troublesome to account for.

The advent of one spirit to Elizabeth Knap, and his use of her organs of speech in carrying on a dialogue with the Rev. Samuel Willard, is distinctly stated by that trustworthy chronicler. Also, according to him, the girl saw vast hosts of similar beings--yes, more in number than any one present had ever seen men in their lives. Here, surely, is very strong testimony to the general fact that spirit action took sensible effect upon and among human beings away back in 1671-2, in the quiet inland town of Groton.

What is fit treatment of such facts and testimony from such a source?

Should they be left unadduced and unalluded to, as they were by one elaborate historian? Should they be called outgrowths from "fraud and imposture," as they were by another? Or should writers upon the subject, in manly way, both let the facts come forth and speak for themselves, and leave the sagacity and veracity of their exemplary chronicler above suspicion, till by facts, and fair deductions from them, they render it probable that Samuel Willard was the slave of such delusion as disqualified him for reasoning with common accuracy upon what his external senses perceived day after day and week after week? Shrinking, by an historian of New England's witchcraft, from distinct notice of Willard's deliberate and carefully drawn conclusions from facts transpiring in his presence, is not only a keeping back of important information, but possibly is an implication either that Willard himself was an unreliable witness, or a witness on the other side of the question, whose testimony would be troublesome. Generous blood boils with rebuke when boasted enlightenment either ignores or traduces the most competent and trustworthy transmitters of marvelous facts, where so doing facilitates command of room for setting up modern fancies in niches where ancient facts have rightful foothold.

On the good authority of Samuel Willard we find that Elizabeth Knap saw hosts of spirits, was roughly handled and spoken through by some of them, and by one who said he was _not Satan_, but a pretty black boy. This was a case of spirit manifestation.

THE MORSE FAMILY.

Late in the year 1679, in the part of old Newbury, Ma.s.s., which is now Newburyport, very many startling pranks occurred, of a kind which to-day are called physical manifestations. These cl.u.s.tered mostly in and around the dwelling-place of William Morse, an aged man, who with his wife, then sixty-five years old, and their little grandson, John Stiles, const.i.tuted the whole family.

Perusal of the records of this case has rendered it probable to us that Mrs. Morse, the little boy John, and a young mariner, Caleb Powell, who was frequently in at Morse's house, were all distinctly mediumistic, and that their systems either supplied, or were used for holding, instrumental elements and forces which spirits used in imparting seeming vitality, will, self-guiding and motive powers to andirons, pots, kettles, trays, bedsteads, and many other implements and articles.

Beauty and attractiveness seldom drape the foundations of even very elegant and useful structures. Laborers digging trenches for foundations, and others placing stones therein, are frequently rough beings, in homely garbs, from whom the refined and sensitive often turn away as soon as politeness and civility permit. Yet, though rough, coa.r.s.e, and unsightly materials go into foundations, and equally rough workmen lay them, the nature and quality of materials there used, and of work there performed, deserve inspection by any one whose duty, interest, or pleasure induces him to estimate with approximate accuracy the value and prospective utility of the structure which shall rest thereon.

Palpable, audible, visible pranks, seeming to be the willed actions of lifeless wood and iron, possibly occurred in the seventeenth, because they are common in the nineteenth century. Such pranks are foundations of arguments which prove a life after death. A table, a chair, or an andiron, manifesting all the usual signs of indwelling vitality, consciousness, intelligence, self-willed action, and of possessing animal senses and capacities, testifies to its being operated upon by some unseen intelligence more convincingly than can the lips of the wisest and truest man the world contains testify to any fact whatsoever which seems supernatural. Vitalized wood or iron speaks "as never man spake;" yes, as man, unless specially aided from outside of the visible world, can never speak; it addresses men's external senses directly; it confides its teachings to the most trusted and most trustworthy conveyances of facts and truths to the mind within. The oft ridiculed, slurred, contemned antics of household furniture are signs put forth to human view by occult operators, whose stand-point, of vision and powers of comprehension enable them to use some natural laws and forces for affecting man and his interests, which human scientists have never clearly cognized, which schoolmen do not embrace in their philosophies, and therefore the cultured world generally has failed to put forth rational and satisfactory explanations of many marvels which the ocean of mystery is often buoying up on to its surface, where they become perceptible by human senses.

Modern mind has very extensively measured the credibility of witnesses to witchcraft facts much as the good woman did that of her "sailor boy." On his return home from a voyage around the Hope, he soon began to describe what he had seen, and gave an account of flying fish. "Stop, stop, my son," said the mother; "don't talk like that; people can't believe that, because fishes haven't got no wings, and can't fly." "Well, mother,"

replied Jack, "I'll pa.s.s by the fish, and tell what happened in the Red Sea. When we weighed anchor there, we drew up on its flukes some spokes and felloes of Pharaoh's chariot wheels." "That, now," rejoined the mother, "will do to tell; we can believe that, because _that is in the Bible_."

In similar manner many people are p.r.o.ne to measure the credibility of witnesses by the reconcilability of the things testified to, with the general previous knowledge, observations, and experiences of the world.

Such a course is usually very well. But the rule it involves is not applicable in all cases. Veritable flying fish exist, notwithstanding the mother conceived them to be nothing but the fictions of her wild boy's lively fancy. The facts of witchcraft may have been veritable; many witnesses who testified to them may have been both truthful and accurate describers, notwithstanding the incredulity of some historians whose philosophies are too narrow to enwrap many facts which exist.

The strange manifestations at Morse's house, we have said before, were nearly all such as to-day are denominated _physical_ ones; that is, such as are manifested either upon, or through use of, matter that is uncontrolled by any mortal's mind. Few if any intelligible utterances or communications imputed to invisible intelligences contributed to the consternation which was then excited in Newbury. This case differs very widely from either of those previously noticed both as to the objects directly acted upon mysteriously, and as to the human organs employed. It invites to extended and careful attention. We must transfer to our pages numerous, and some long, extracts from the old records; else we shall fail to manifest with desirable clearness and authority the multiplicity and character of those marvelous works, and their probable sources and authors.

Mr. Morse himself, for aught that appears, escaped all suspicion of complicity with, or connivance at, the strange doings. He seemingly came forth from the furnace with no sulphurous smell about him. Caleb Powell, a young seaman, mate of some vessel, but then on sh.o.r.e, was the first person to be legally accused in this case. He was arraigned at the instance, and on the testimony, of Mr. Morse himself. Some peculiar characteristics and habits ascribed to Powell were such as would naturally cause him to be watched, if strange doings appeared where he was present. In "Annals of Witchcraft, Woodward's Historical Series," No. VIII. p. 142, it is stated that Powell "pretended to a knowledge in the occult sciences, and that by means of this knowledge he could detect the witchcraft then going on at Mr. Morse's.... The dancing of pots and kettles, the bowing of chairs, &c., was resumed with more vigor than ever when Powell came there 'to detect the witchcraft.'"

Upham, vol. i. p. 440, says Powell "determined to see what it all meant, and to put a stop to it, if he could, went to the house, and soon became satisfied that a roguish grandchild was the cause of all the trouble....

It is not unlikely, that, in foreign ports, he had witnessed exhibitions of necromancy and mesmerism, which, in various forms and under different names, have always been practiced. Possibly he may have _boasted to be a medium himself_, a scholar and adept in the mystic art, able to read and divine 'the workings of spirits.' At any rate, when it became known that, at a glance, he attributed to the boy the cause of the mischief, and that it ceased on his taking him away from the house, the opinion became settled that he was a wizard.... His astronomy, astrology, and _Spiritualism_ brought him in peril of his life."

It is no unusual thing for even wise men to write much more wisely than they know. If Powell correctly "_at a glance_ ... found the boy to be the cause of the mischief," it becomes probably a _fact_, and not simply a _boast_, that he was "a medium himself," that he was "a wizard," or knowing one, and that his "Spiritualism," more _accurately_ his mediumistic capabilities, "brought him in peril of his life." One authority says the play "was resumed with more vigor than ever" when he came into the house. For some reason he was very soon arraigned and tried for witchcraft, but not convicted.

We have little doubt that his optics saw the boy performing tricks, and therefore can believe that he accused John in good faith; just as the clairvoyant soon to be noticed accused the medium Read. Powell probably saw the boy perpetrating the mischief. But with what eyes? The outer or the inner--his material or his spiritual ones? And which boy did he see?

The external or the internal one--the boy material or the boy spiritual?

In evidence both that our explanations of Powell's doings will be neither sheer novelty nor mere fancy, and for the purpose of disseminating knowledge of highly important facts, the following extracts are taken from an instructive and interesting pamphlet upon "Mediums and Mediums.h.i.+p," by Thomas R. Hazard: Wm. White & Co., Boston, 1873.

"I once saw Read" (a well-known medium for physical manifestations) "affected by the abrupt introduction of light at one of his circles in Boston, at which he was, as usual, securely tied by a committee chosen by the audience, and fastened securely to his chair. The manifestations were after the common order, and went on harmoniously until an Indian war-song and dance were inaugurated. The exhibition was very exciting, and both the song and the dance became so uproarious and violent that, although we were in a three-story back room, I was apprehensive that not only the temporary platform might give way, but that the attention of the police might be attracted to the spot by the noise. Near by me sat Miss F., an excellent clairvoyant medium, who was earnestly describing to some of her friends the scene that was being enacted on the platform. She stated that two powerful Indians stood by Read, and that it was he who performed the wonderful dance.... Thus one of the best 'dark-circle mediums in the United States' was not only proved to be an 'impostor,' but taken in the very act of his trickery.... From all that was occurring before us, it was too evident that Read was an impostor; for 'Miss F. clairvoyantly saw him perform tricks which he palmed off on the public as spiritual.'... But now, ... mark the sequel, and observe how easy it is for those who suffer their zeal to outrun their knowledge to be mistaken; and how true it is that as spiritual things can only be discerned by the spiritual eye, and material things only by the material eye, so the spiritual eye can (under ordinary circ.u.mstances) discern only spiritual things, as the material eye can discern only material things.

"It seems that a self-lighting burner had been adjusted near the platform, at which an experienced man from the gas-works was stationed, with the gas-c.o.c.k in his hand, ready at a moment's notice to turn on the light.

This man was within hearing distance of Miss F., and must have heard her remarks;... he gave the c.o.c.k a sudden turn, and in an instant all was light, and of course the medium was--_exposed_--sitting fast bound in his chair, with every knot as perfect as when first tied, but in a dying condition from the effect of the tremendous shock his nervous system underwent by the sudden return of the unusual volume of elements that had been extracted from his physical body to furnish material clothing for his own _double_, or some other spiritual creation, that was performing the exhausting war-song and dance on the platform; nor is it probable that Miss F. ever saw the _material_ body of Read during the whole time she _clairvoyantly_ saw him.... Suffice it to say, that the suffering medium was released from his bonds as soon as practicable, but not until after three or four minutes had expired, ... after which, by the application of restoratives, Read was gradually revived, and restored to his right mind and condition."

Such statement of direct personal observations--coming from the pen of an aged, but still vigorous, gentleman of ample pecuniary means, of more than average culture, of acute perceptions, of careful and critical observations, who has spent many years in "trying the spirits" and contesting the strength and quality of testimony in their favor at every step,--who hates, with a righteous and outspoken hatred, falsehood, fraud, imposture, oppression, or hypocrisy, wherever or in whatever cause they manifest themselves--is ent.i.tled to credence, and gives important inklings of some occasional methods of spirit operations upon and around mediums.

From such a witness we learn that while a medium's limbs were bound fast, and he claiming to be, and known, a few minutes before, to have been, sitting bound hand and foot on a stage in a room just made dark, a lady clairvoyant there present saw him loose, and moving about most vigorously over the stage, doing "things, as to jump up and down," as Powell saw the Morse boy acting. The clairvoyant's inner vision saw Read dancing--saw either a perfect semblance of him, formed by use of special properties drawn forth from his system, or else saw the veritable Read himself practically then a disembodied and unroped spirit. She no doubt actually saw thus, and saw the essential man Read loosed, and dancing most vigorously. A flash of light, however, let suddenly on at the time, enabled all external eyes to see the external form of Read sitting all fast bound upon the chair.

That case teaches that properties drawn forth from the little boy John Stiles, and molded into that boy's form, may have, by Powell's interior vision, been seen playing tricks with pots and kettles, while neither the boy's consciousness, will, or physical muscles had the slightest connection with the antic articles. Facts showing such susceptibilities in human organisms as were manifested in the case of Read, are too significant and important for any scientist, philosopher, or historian to ignore, so long as he claims to be, or, in fact, can be, a wise and helpful expounder of very many records of ancient marvels.

At page 392, vol. ii., of Mather's "Magnalia," New Haven ed., 1820, account is given of this case wherein it is stated that,--

"A little boy belonging to the family was a princ.i.p.al sufferer in these molestations; for he was flung about at such a rate that they feared his brains would have been beaten out: nor _did they find it possible to hold him_.... The man took him to keep him in a chair; but the chair fell a dancing, and both of them were very near being thrown into the fire.

"These and a thousand such vexations befalling the boy at home, they carried him to live abroad at a doctor's. There he was quiet; but returning home, he suddenly cried out he was p.r.i.c.ked on the back, where they found strangely sticking a _three-tined fork_, which belonged unto the doctor, and had been seen at his house after the boy's _departure_.

Afterward his troublers found him out _at the doctor's also_; where, crying out again he was p.r.i.c.ked on the back, they found an _iron spindle_ stuck into him.

"He was taken out of his bed, and thrown under it; and all the knives belonging to the house were one after another stuck into his back, which the spectators pulled out; only one of them seemed to the spectators to come out of his mouth. The poor boy was divers times thrown into the fire, and preserved from scorching there with much ado. For a long while he barked like a dog, clucked like an hen, and could not speak rationally.

His tongue would be pulled out of his mouth; but when he could recover it so far as to speak, he complained that _a man called P----l appeared unto him as the cause of all_.

"The man and his wife taking the boy to bed with them ... they were severely pinched and pulled out of bed.... But before the _devil_ was chained up, the invisible hand which did all these things began to put on an astonis.h.i.+ng _visibility_. They often thought they felt the hand that scratched them, while yet they saw it not; but when they thought they had hold of it, it would give them the slip.

"Once the _fist_ beating the man was discernible, but they could not catch hold of it. At length an apparition of a _Blackamoor child_ showed itself plainly to them.... A voice sang _revenge! revenge! sweet is revenge_. At this the people, being terrified, called upon G.o.d; whereupon there followed a mournful note, several times uttering these expressions--_Alas!

alas! we knock no more, we knock no more!_ and there was an end of all."

In no other remembered account is that little boy credited with saying anything whatsoever. Mather reports that upon coming out of one of his scenes of torture so far as to recover power of speech, "he complained that a man called P----l appeared unto him as the cause of all." That statement discloses a fact worth observing. There was t.i.t for tat between little John and Powell. Each found the other a focus of issuing force that caused the witchery. The sensitive boy probably saw and felt, by his interior faculties, that properties and forces from Powell were applied to the strangely moving objects, and also in producing his own sufferings.

Powell, too, through his inner perceptives, could learn the same in relation to the boy. Both were probably right in their perceptions, and in their allegations. Mr. Morse suspected and complained of Powell. That is something in favor of deeming John the lesser focus of force in this case.

The mauling "fist" was once seen, but eluded grasping, as spirit limbs generally do. At last, a "Blackamoor child," perhaps brother to Elizabeth Knap's "pretty black boy," was visible--and not only that, but audible also. If it was the spirit of either an Indian or African child, sympathizing with his own race, and who had been taught to look upon all whites as oppressors, _revenge_ would naturally be _sweet_ to such a one, or to a band of such. Earnest, heartfelt prayer might psychologically break their hold, and induce them to say, "we knock no more."

Though Powell, when tried, escaped conviction, yet, said the court, "he hath given such grounds of suspicion of working by the devil, that we cannot acquit him;" therefore the judges charged him with the costs attending the prosecution of _himself_. Such was equity practice in those days.

Having failed to prove conclusively that the harum-scarum sailor boy was the devil's conduit for the startling occurrences among them, the good people of Newbury naturally proceeded to inquire what other person was the channel through which his sable majesty was pouring out malignity. Who, next to Powell, among those present at the manifestations, was most likely to have made a covenant with the Evil One? All eyes would turn instinctively to the spot where the deviltries transpired, and to persons who were generally near by when and where the performances came off. The inmates of the house of exhibition, Mr. Morse, Mrs. Morse, and their grandson, John Stiles, would naturally be very keenly watched and thoroughly scrutinized. Their traits, habits, and antecedents would be fully discussed; it was almost certain that one of the three must be guilty; and which of them was most likely to be the devil's tool? Result shows that Mrs. Morse was pitched upon. But why she? Her character was good--she was religious and beneficent. _But--but--_

Mrs. Jane Sewall--Woodward's "Hist. Series," No. VIII. p. 281--testified and said, "Wm. Morse, being at my house, ... some years since, ... begun of his own accord to say that his wife was accounted a _witch_; but he did wonder that she should be both a healing and a destroying witch, and gave this instance. The wife of Thomas Wells, being come to the time of her delivery, was not willing (by motion of his sister in whose house she was) to send for Goodwife Morse, though she were the next neighbor, and continued a long season in strong labor and could not be delivered; but when they saw the woman in such a condition, and without any hopeful appearance of delivery, determined to send for the said G. Morse, and so Tho. Wells went to her and desired her to come; who, at first, made a difficulty of it, as being unwilling, not being sent for sooner. Tho.

Wells said he would have come sooner, but sister would not let him; so, at last she went, and quickly after her coming the woman was delivered."

Therefore, some years before the time of Mrs. Morse's trial, Mr. Morse, in Mrs. Sewall's own house, volunteered "to say that his wife was accounted a _witch_;" at which he wondered because of her beneficence, and then he instanced her doings in the case of Mrs. Wells as evidence of her goodness. The accounts pertaining to her render it probable that Mrs.

Morse sometimes acted as midwife, and show clearly that some people had previously called her a witch. Such reports being in circulation, it is not surprising that some women should object to admitting her into their houses, fearing the introduction of brimstone; while others, who had previously found her help very efficient, would seek her a.s.sistance in hours of pain or sickness. The point of most significance is, that Mrs.

Morse had, some years previous to the disturbances at her house, _been suspected of witchcraft_. Why? We do not know with any certainty. But the appearance that she was a midwife, whose labors involved more or less of general medical practice, suggests the possibility that her "simple remedies," or her hands, had sometimes produced such extraordinary effects, as led people to surmise that the devil must be her helper; just as, for the same reasons, more than thirty years before, he was believed to be co-operator with Margaret Jones. The conjecture naturally follows that she was highly mediumistic, and that her intuitions and magnetism, if nothing more, enabled and caused her to be a worker of marvelous cures. It was at the abode of such a woman, and in apartments saturated with her emanations, that the unseen ones frequently held high, rude, and consternating frolic, during many weeks; it was at the home of one _previously_ reputed a _witch_.

An indication that, even before the wonders occurred at her home, she had been suspected of exercising also perceptive faculties that were more than human; had been suspected of manifesting "wit" of the special kind which cost Ann Hibbins her life, is given in the following deposition by Margaret Mirack, who testified thus, Woodward's "Hist. Series," No. VIII.