THE
SALEM WITCHCRAFT,
The Planchette Mystery,
AND
MODERN SPIRITUALISM,
WITH
Dr. DODDRIDGE’S DREAM.
HISTORY
OF
Salem Witchcraft:
A REVIEW
OF
CHARLES W. UPHAM’S GREAT WORK.
FROM THE “EDINBURGH REVIEW.”
With Notes,
BY THE EDITOR OF “THE PHRENOLOGICAL JOURNAL.”
NEW YORK:
FOWLER & WELLS CO., PUBLISHERS,
753 BROADWAY.
1886.
BIGOTRY. Obstinate or blind attachment to a particular creed; unreasonable zealor warmth in favor of a party, sect, or opinion; excessive prejudice. The practiceor tenet of a bigot.
PREJUDICE. An opinion or decision of mind, formed without due examinationof the facts or arguments which are necessary to a just and impartial determination.A previous bent or inclination of mind for or against any person or thing. Injury orwrong of any kind; as to act to the prejudice of another.
SUPERSTITION. Excessive exactness or rigor in religious opinions or practice;excess or extravagance in religion; the doing of things not required by God, or abstainingfrom things not forbidden; or the belief of what is absurd, or belief withoutevidence. False religion; false worship. Rite or practice proceeding from excessof scruples in religion. Excessive nicety; scrupulous exactness. Belief in thedirect agency of superior powers in certain extraordinary or singular events, or inomens and prognostics.—Webster.
INTRODUCTION.
The object in reprinting this most interesting reviewis simply to show the progress made in moral,intellectual, and physical science. The reader willgo back with us to a time—not very remote—whennothing was known of Phrenology and Psychology;when men and women were persecuted, and even putto death, through the baldest ignorance and the mostpitiable superstition. If we were to go back stillfarther, to the Holy Wars, we should find cities andnations drenched in human blood through religiousbigotry and intolerance. Let us thank God thatour lot is cast in a more fortunate age, when thelight of revelation, rightly interpreted by the aid ofScience, points to the Source of all knowledge, alltruth, all light.
When we know more of Anatomy, Physiology,Physiognomy, and the Natural Sciences generally,there will be a spirit of broader liberality, religioustolerance, and individual freedom. Then all menwill hold themselves accountable to God, rather thanto popes, priests, or parsons. Our progenitors livedin a time that tried men’s souls, as the followinglucid review most painfully shows.
S. R. W.