WITCHCRAFT may be defined the pretended or supposed possession of supernatural power, in consequence of an alleged compact made with the devil; the object of which was either to procure advantages to the persons thus endowed, or their friends, or to do evil to their enemies. This com pact was not reckoned valid until it had been writ ten out with blood taken from a vein of the person or persons, who thus resigned their life to the ser vice of the evil being in question. An individual who in this way became a witch, gave up to him soul and body; and at death he necessarily went to the regions of horror and despair. The devil, on his side, guaranteed that the persons who thus sold themselves to him should want for nothing they desired in this world; that they should be avenged upon their enemies; that they should have the pri vilege of inflicting disease on whomsoever they wished; and that, in short, their power of doing evil should be very great, if not unlimited. To accomplish this purpose, a familiar spirit or gnome was given them by Satan, which was ready to at tend them at a call, and was entirely subservient to their will. Any of the lower animals, such as cows, horses, &c. or any of the human species that had been witched could never thrive: they gradually withered and died, or dragged out a weary life with many marks of an untoward unearthly cha racter about them. The witches could assume any shape they chose, which was generally supposed to be that of a hare; and they could transport them selves through the air with unspeakable rapidity, on a broom-stick, or nut-shell, or any such article, for any purpose, particularly to attend meetings of witches, at which the devil himself always pre sided.
That witches, such as we have described them, that is, persons supposed to be possessed of super natural endowments, in consequence of a compact make with Satan, or who pretended to such en dowments, have existed, is an opinion that has more or less obtained in every age. The origin of such an opinion, which all intelligent men now de clare unfounded, it is somewhat difficult to trace. As this opinion has been found to prevail most among ignorant people, and in unenlightened coun tries, it is not improbable that it originated in su perstition, in a sense of our own weakness and in security, in our profound reverence for the Deity, and in the vague and undefined notions we possess relative to the power and influence which God has granted to that " roaring lion that goes about seek ing whom he may devour." Before the Christian
era, however, and at that time, that arch enemy of mankind was, undoubtedly for wise purposes, al lowed powers, and held a visible intercourse with our species, which have long been denied him. In various parts of the sacred volume we have evi dence of this. Compare Exod. xxii. 18; Levit. xix. 20, 31; Acts \ i i. 9; xvi. 16; and Galat. v. 20. That witchcraft, however, ever existed in any de gree, or in any sense, has been doubted or denied by the most eminent expounders of Scripture. On this important subject we cannot enter at present. Nor is it necessary; for though we allow, (what by no means must be taken for granted,) that " the prince of the power of this world" may, for bene volent purposes, have had these privileges given him, either under the former dispensation, or at the Christian era, such privileges, like many other peculiarities of these remote times, have now been entirely annulled. The modern witch, besides, is a considerably different personage from any we read of in the sacred volume. The ancient witches seem to have been somewhat similar to our modern fortune-tellers; for " they made great gain by di vination;" and the idea of the immense transporta bility spoken of above, is never once alluded to in Scripture.
The belief in witchcraft, as already hinted, has always disappeared according to the advancement in any country of literature an-1 liberal knowledge. There is not at this day, it may with perfect safety be affirmed, a single person of intelligence by whom the very idea is not ridiculed. If in any quarter it yet obtains, it is merely among the lowest orders, among whom the idea of ghosts, and hobgoblins, and other cognate superstitions still abound. In a a few years, even in the most remote and ignorant parts of this country, the belief in witchcraft, like that in the second sight, will be entirely obliterated.