Note A — MEMOIR OF HON. SAMUEL SEWALL,

Lord Chief-Justice Hale was of this persuasion, and pronounced sentence of death upon persons supposed to be in league with Satan. A belief in witchcraft so prevailed in England as to hold in bondage the best of men. Proof of this is found in the 72nd canon made by the clerical convocation in 1603, and in the laws enacted against the crime itself. Isaac Ambrose, in his Treatise on the New Birth, directs persons seeking salvation to inquire, while searching out their sins, whether they have not sometimes been guilty of witchcraft. The fact of witchcraft was admitted by Lord Bacon and Mr. Addison. Dr. Johnson more than inclined to the same side of the question; and Sir William Blackstone quite frowns on opposers of this doctrine. These facts are mentioned not to justify Mr. Sewall and his associates on the bench; but to show the injustice of selecting them as peculiarly guilty. The severe charges which have been brought against the people of Salem, Gov. Winthrop, Dr. Cotton Mather, and others of this country, lie equally against the most learned, pious, and eminent of mankind. This belief was the mania of the day.