WITCH, WARLOCK, AND
MAGICIAN

Historical Sketches of Magic and Witchcraft
in England and Scotland

BY
W. H. DAVENPORT ADAMS

‘Dreams and the light imaginings of men’
Shelley

J. W. BOUTON
706 & 1152 BROADWAY
NEW YORK
1889

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PREFACE.

The following pages may be regarded as a contributiontowards that ‘History of Human Error’ whichwas undertaken by Mr. Augustine Caxton. I fearthat many minds will have to devote all their energiesto the work, if it is ever to be brought to completion;and, indeed, it may plausibly be argued that itscompletion would be an impossibility, since everygeneration adds something to the melancholy record—‘pulverisexigui parva munera.’ However this maybe, little more remains to be said on the subjectswhich I have here considered from the standpoint ofa sympathetic though incredulous observer. Alchemy,Magic, Witchcraft—how exhaustively they have beeninvestigated will appear from the list of authoritieswhich I have drawn up for the reader’s convenience.They have been studied by ‘adepts,’ and by critics,as realities and as delusions; and almost the lastword would seem to have been said by Science—thoughnot on the side of the adepts, who still continueto dream of the Hermetic philosophy, to losethemselves in fanciful pictures, theurgic and occult,and to write about the mysteries of magic with a[Pg vi]simplicity of faith which we may wonder at, but arebound to respect.

It has not been my purpose, in the present volume,to attempt a general history of magic and alchemy, ora scientific inquiry into their psychological aspects. Ihave confined myself to a sketch of their progress inEngland, and to a narrative of the lives of our principalmagicians. This occupies the first part. Thesecond is devoted to an historical review of witchcraftin Great Britain, and an examination into the mostremarkable Witch-Trials, in which I have endeavouredto bring out their peculiar features, presenting muchof the evidence adduced, and in some cases the so-calledconfessions of the victims, in the originallanguage. I believe that the details, notwithstandingthe reticence imposed upon me by considerations ofdelicacy and decorum, will surprise the reader, andthat he will readily admit the profound interestattaching to them, morally and intellectually. Ihave added a chapter on the ‘Literature of Witchcraft,’which, I hope, is tolerably exhaustive, and now offerthe whole as an effort to present, in a popular andreadable form, the result of careful and conscientiousstudy extending over many years.

W. H. D. A.

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CONTENTS.