Lectures on Witchcraft - Comprising a History of the Delusion in Salem, in 1692 #248453

Through the press. The subject of which they treat is intimately connected with the history, not merely of New England, but of the imagination of man, as it has been developed in various regions and ages. Very inadequate and unjust views are entertained of the scene in our annals, which they illustrate, and of the persc'ms who acted or sufi'ered in that scene. The princi pal inducement, however, to give them a per manent circulation, is a conviction that the facts they relate, and the reflections they nat urally suggest, are full of the most important instruction. N 0 one, it is thought, can ponder upon them without receiving useful lessons to guide and influence him with reference to the cultivation and government of his own moral and intellectual faculties, and to the obliga tions that press upon him as a member of so ciety to do what he may to enlighten, rectify and control public sentiment. In the hope that they may contribute, in combination with the great variety of other means now employed, to diffuse the blessings of knowledge, to check.