The enchantress Theoris of Athens seems to
have been the first witch that had recourse to charms. Demosthenes uses
the terms both of witchery and imposture in speaking of her. This witch
was put to death by the Athenians--an accomplice having displayed to
them the charms, &c., by which she wrought her miracles. Our Saviour's
words, that _faith_ can remove mountains, are applicable particularly to
the supposed powers of witchcraft; and the influence of charms and
amulets in averting disease is well known. We have alluded, in our first
paper, to the trial of Rose Cullender and Amy Duny, at Norwich, for
witchcraft; and we now give the speech of Sir Thomas Browne, the
celebrated physician of that period, (1664,) to whom, in consequence of
defect in the proof, the case was referred, which was the cause of their
conviction. Sir Thomas Browne offered it as his opinion, "that the
devil, in such cases, did work upon the bodies of men and women, upon a
natural foundation, (that is) to stir up and excite such humours
superabounding in their bodies to a great excess, whereby he did, in an
extraordinary manner, afflict them with such distempers as their bodies
were most subject to, as particularly appeared in the children of
Dorothy Dunent, (one of the indictments against the prisoners being for
their bewitchment;) for he conceived that these swooning fits were
natural, and nothing else but that they call the mother, but _only
heightened to a great excess by the subtilty of the devil co-operating
with the malice of these, which we term witches, at whose instance he
doth the villanies_.
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