{"product_id":"2940014928106","title":"Salem Witchcraft, Volume I \u0026 II","description":"The \"Lectures on Witchcraft,\" published in 1831, have long been out of\u003cbr\u003eprint. Although frequently importuned to prepare a new edition, I was\u003cbr\u003eunwilling to issue again what I had discovered to be an insufficient\u003cbr\u003epresentation of the subject. In the mean time, it constantly became\u003cbr\u003emore and more apparent, that much injury was resulting from the want\u003cbr\u003eof a complete and correct view of a transaction so often referred to,\u003cbr\u003eand universally misunderstood.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe first volume of this work contains what seems to me necessary to\u003cbr\u003eprepare the reader for the second, in which the incidents and\u003cbr\u003ecircumstances connected with the witchcraft prosecutions in 1692, at\u003cbr\u003ethe village and in the town of Salem, are reduced to chronological\u003cbr\u003eorder, and exhibited in detail.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs showing how far the beliefs of the understanding, the perceptions\u003cbr\u003eof the senses, and the delusions of the imagination, may be\u003cbr\u003econfounded, the subject belongs not only to theology and moral and\u003cbr\u003epolitical science, but to physiology, in its original and proper use,\u003cbr\u003eas embracing our whole nature; and the facts presented may help to\u003cbr\u003econclusions relating to what is justly regarded as the great mystery\u003cbr\u003eof our being,--the connection between the body and the mind.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is unnecessary to mention the various well-known works of authority\u003cbr\u003eand illustration, as they are referred to in the text. But I cannot\u003cbr\u003erefrain from bearing my grateful testimony to the value of the\u003cbr\u003e\"Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society\" and the\u003cbr\u003e\"New-England Historical and Genealogical Register.\" The \"Historical\u003cbr\u003eCollections\" and the \"Proceedings\" of the Essex Institute have\u003cbr\u003eafforded me inestimable assistance. Such works as these are providing\u003cbr\u003ethe materials that will secure to our country a history such as no\u003cbr\u003eother nation can have. Our first age will not be shrouded in darkness\u003cbr\u003eand consigned to fable, but, in all its details, brought within the\u003cbr\u003erealm of knowledge. Every person who desires to preserve the memory of\u003cbr\u003ehis ancestors, and appreciate the elements of our institutions and\u003cbr\u003ecivilization, ought to place these works, and others like them, on the\u003cbr\u003eshelves of his library, in an unbroken and continuing series. A debt\u003cbr\u003eof gratitude is due to the earnest, laborious, and disinterested\u003cbr\u003estudents who are contributing the results of their explorations to the\u003cbr\u003etreasures of antiquarian and genealogical learning which accumulate in\u003cbr\u003ethese publications.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA source of investigation, especially indispensable in the preparation\u003cbr\u003eof the present work, deserves to be particularly noticed. In 1647, the\u003cbr\u003eGeneral Court of Massachusetts provided by law for the taking of\u003cbr\u003etestimony, in all cases, under certain regulations, in the form of\u003cbr\u003edepositions, to be preserved _in perpetuam rei memoriam_. The evidence\u003cbr\u003eof witnesses was prepared in writing, beforehand, to be used at the\u003cbr\u003etrials; they to be present at the time, to meet further inquiry, if\u003cbr\u003eliving within ten miles, and not unavoidably prevented. In a capital\u003cbr\u003ecase, the presence of the witness, as well as his written testimony,\u003cbr\u003ewas absolutely required. These depositions were lodged in the files,\u003cbr\u003eand constitute the most valuable materials of history. In our day,\u003cbr\u003ethe statements of witnesses ordinarily live only in the memory of\u003cbr\u003epersons present at the trials, and are soon lost in oblivion. In cases\u003cbr\u003eattracting unusual interest, stenographers are employed to furnish\u003cbr\u003ethem to the press. There were no newspaper reporters or \"court\u003cbr\u003ecalendars\" in the early colonial times; but these depositions more\u003cbr\u003ethan supply their place. Given in, as they were, in all sorts of\u003cbr\u003ecases,--of wills, contracts, boundaries and encroachments, assault and\u003cbr\u003ebattery, slander, larceny, \u0026amp;c., they let us into the interior, the\u003cbr\u003every inmost recesses, of life and society in all their forms. The\u003cbr\u003eextent to which, by the aid of WILLIAM P. UPHAM, Esq., of\u003cbr\u003eSalem, I have drawn from this source is apparent at every page.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA word is necessary to be said relating to the originals of the\u003cbr\u003edocuments that belong to the witchcraft proceedings. They were\u003cbr\u003eprobably all deposited at the time in the clerk's office of Essex\u003cbr\u003eCounty. A considerable number of them were, from some cause,\u003cbr\u003etransferred to the State archives, and have been carefully preserved.\u003cbr\u003eOf the residue, a very large proportion have been abstracted from time\u003cbr\u003eto time by unauthorized hands, and many, it is feared, destroyed or\u003cbr\u003eotherwise lost. Two very valuable parcels have found their way into\u003cbr\u003ethe libraries of the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Essex\u003cbr\u003eInstitute, where they are faithfully secured. A few others have come\u003cbr\u003eto light among papers in the possession of individuals.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47074145566960,"sku":"2940014928106","price":1.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014928106_p0.jpg?v=1763616972","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014928106","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}