Note 84 — GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE

Leviathan, i, 2 (English Works, ed. Molesworth, III, 9). Compare Hobbes’s Dialogue between a Philosopher and a Student of the Common Law of England (English Works, VI, 96):—“L. I know not. Besides these crimes, there is conjuration, witchcraft, sorcery and enchantment; which are capital by the statute I James, c. 12.—P. But I desire not to discourse of that subject. For though without doubt there is some great wickedness signified by those crimes; yet I have ever found myself too dull to conceive the nature of them, or how the devil hath power to do so many things which witches have been accused of.” Wier is far more humane, as well as more reasonable. If one holds, he writes, that witches are to be severely punished for their evil intent, let it be remembered that there is a great difference between sane and insane will. “Quod si quis contentiose uoluntatem seuerius puniendam defendat, is primum distinguat inter uoluntatem hominis sani perfectam, quae in actum uere dirigi coeperit: et inter uitiatae mentis sensum, uel (si uoles) corruptam amentis uoluntatem: cui suo opere, quasi alterius esset, colludit diabolus, nec alius insulse uolentem subsequitur effectus.” De Præstigiis Dæmonum, vi, 21, ed. 1568, pp. 641-642.