THE

SPECTATOR.

VOL. IV.

No 117. Saturday, July 14, 1711.

T

-Ipfi fibi fomnia fingunt.

Virg.

HERE are fome Opinions in which a Man should stand Neuter, without engaging his Affent to one fide or the other. Such a hovering Faith as this, which refuses to fettle upon any Determination, is abfolutely neceffary in a Mind that is careful to avoid Errors and Prepoffeffions. When the Arguments prefs equally on both fides in Matters that are indifferent to

us,

us, the fafeft Method is to give up our felves to neither.

IT is with this Temper of Mind that I confider the Subject of Witchcraft. When I hear the Relations that are made from all Parts of the World, not only from Norway and Lapland, from the East and West-Indies, but from every particular Nation in Europe, I cannot forbear thinking that there is fuch an Intercourfe and Commerce with Evil Spirits, as that which we express by the Name of Witchcraft. But when I confider that the ignorant and credulous Parts of the World abound most in these Relations, and that the Perfons among us who are fuppofed to engage in fuch an Infernal Commerce, are People of a weak Understanding and crazed Imagination, and at the fame time reflect upon the many Impoftures and Delufions of this nature that have been detected in all Ages, I endeavour to fufpend my Belief till I hear more certain Accounts than any which have yet come to my Knowledge. In fhort, when I confider the Queftion, whether there are fuch Perfons in the World as thofe we call Witches? my Mind is divided beoppofite Opinions; or

tween the two?

ra

צב

rather (to speak my Thoughts freely) I believe in general that there is, and has been fuch a thing as Witchcraft; but at the fame time can give no Credit to any particular Inftance of it.

I am engaged in this Speculation, by fome Occurrences that I met with Yefterday, which I fhall give my Reader an Account of at large. As I was walking with my Friend Sir ROGER by the fide of one of his Woods, an old Woman applied her felf to me for my Charity. Her Drefs and Figure put me in mind of the following Description in Otway.

In a clofe Lane as I purfu'd my Journey
I spy'd a wrinkled Hag, with Age grown double,
Picking dry Sticks, and mumbling to her felf.
Her Eyes with fcalding Rheum were gall'd and
red;

Cold Palfy book her Head; her Hands feem'd
wither'd;

And on her crooked Shoulders had he wrapp'd
The tatter'd Remants of an old striped Hanging,
Which fer'd to keep her Carcass from the Cold:
So there was nothing of a piece about her.
Her lower Weeds were all d'er coarfly patch'd
With diff'rent colour'd Rags, black, red, white,
yellow,

And feem'd to speak Variety of Wretchedness.

AS

AS I was mufing on this Defcripti on, and comparing it with the Object before me, the Knight told me, that this very old Woman had the Reputation of a Witch all over the Country, that her Lips were observed to be always in Motion, and that there was not a Switch about her House which her Neighbours did not believe had carried her feveral hundreds of Miles. If The chanced to ftumble, they always found Sticks or Straws that lay in the Figure of a Crofs before her. If the made any Mistake at Church, and cryed Amen in a wrong Place, they never failed to conclude that he was faying her Prayers backwards. There was not a Maid in the Parish that would take a Pin of her, though the fhould offer a Bag of Money with it. She goes by the Name of Moll White, and has made the Country ring with feveral imaginary Exploits which are palmed upon her. If the Dairy Maid does not make her Butter come fo foon as fhe would have it, Moll White is at the Bottom of the Churn. If a Horfe fweats in the Stable, Moll White has been upon his Back. If a Hare makes an unexpected Escape from the Hounds, the Huntsman curfes

Moll

a

at

Moll White. Nay, (fays Sir ROGER) I have known the Mafter of the Pack, upon fuch an Occafion, fend one of his Servants to fee if Moll White had been out that Morning.

THIS Account raise my Curiofity fo far, that I begged my Friend Sir ROGER to go with me into her Hovel, which food in a folitary Corner under the fide of the Wood. Upon our firft entering Sir ROGER winked to me, and pointed at something that stood behind the Door, which, upon looking that way, I found to be an old Broomftaff. At the fame time he whispered me in the Ear to take notice of a Tabby Cat that fat in the Chimney-Corner, which, as the Knight told me, lay under as bad a Report as Moll White her felf; for befides that Moll is faid often to accompany her in the fame Shape, the Cat is reported to have spoken twice or thrice in her Life, and to have played feveral Pranks above the Capacity of an ordinary Cat.

I was fecretly concerned to fee Human Nature in fo much Wretchedness and Difgrace, but at the fame time could not forbear fmiling to hear Sir ROGER, who is a little puzzled about

the