never will let go. And if I leave it not, thou wilt not let me lie in the dust, but wilt lift me up; and when thou shalt have humbled me, so that I renounce dependence on myself, and seek my strength, my consolation, all in thee, then the hour will come when I shall no more tread with uncertain steps, but shall walk forever in uprightness of heart before thy face! JUSTIN MARTYR-A SKETCH. JUST USTIN MARTYR was a very remarkable man. In the title of his works he is called Justin the philosopher and martyr. He was, in fact, what the Emperor Marcus Aurelius himself might have become, had it not been for some natural defect in his character as a lover of truth, or for the prejudices engendered by his stoical pride. An ardent lover of truth, Justin, as is well known, tried the various schools of heathen philosophy, and found them all wanting; his mind knew no rest in the search after truth till he embraced Christianity. He was born in Samaria, but brought up a heathen. At the time of the accession of Marcus Aurelius, Justin was, according to one account, about sixty years of age; according to another, seventy at the least; according to another, not much more than forty. Devoting himself in his early days to heathen philosophy, he was attracted by the Stoics; but they could give him no satisfaction, when his soul yearned after the knowledge of God. He passed under the teaching of several sects, dissatisfied with them all, till at last he thought he found rest in Platonism. He rejoiced in Plato's lofty views of the connection of man's soul with the world invisible, and the hopes of going to God when the soul should shake off the body. Very touching is the well-known account he himself has left us of his conversion,how, meditating one day on these lofty truths, he went forth to walk alone on the sea-shore, and was followed by an old man of kind and grave aspect. The stranger's conversation corresponded with his appearance; they talked of grave and lofty subjects—the stranger pointed out to him the insufficiency of all human teaching, spoke to him of the prophets whom God had raised up as inspired teachers, and urged the necessity of prayer, if the soul would really learn to know the God of truth. 66 Pray," said the old man, "that the gates of light may be opened to thee; not to all men does it belong to comprehend the truth, but only to him to whom understanding is granted by God and his Christ." This interview made a deep impression on the mind of Justin, and he ultimately took refuge in Christianity," esteeming it," he tells us, "the only safe and profitable philosophy." Henceforth, still retaining his philosopher's garb, he devoted himself to urge upon others that system in which his own soul had found rest. He wrote the two defenses of Christianity which we find in his works-one addressed principally to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, the other to the Roman senate during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. But if his arguments reached Marcus Aurelius's ears, they failed not only to convince him, but even to make him friendly or just to the author. Justin, on his second visit to Rome, was apprehended with several of his friends and disciples, brought before Rusticus, the prefect of the city, and commanded to sacrifice to the heathen gods. But he had learned even in his heathen days to admire the constancy of the Christian martyrs, and he was not now to be terrified into a denial of the religion which had been for years the joy of his heart. Rusticus, the prefect, before whom he was summoned, was one of the philosophic teachers of Marcus Aurelius; and Crescens, the Cynic, the audience of whose school had diminished by the teaching of Justin, is said to have urged on his death. The philosophers were jealous of the teacher of a true heavenly wisdom such as their worldly minds could not reach. Rusticus pressed Justin to renounce Christ; but the friends with one voice declared their steadfast faith, and their hope of being preserved at a higher and more awful tribunal, before which all men must stand. Sentence was pronounced on them as refusing to sacrifice, and disobeying the commands of the emperor. They were all scourged and beheaded; and the faithful secretly carried away and buried their remains. This martyrdom is referred by Milman to the year 166 or 167, the sixth or seventh year of Marcus Aurelius. The Greeks celebrate the 1st of June, the Latins the 10th of April, in memory of the death of Justin, and tradition points out the Church of St. Lorenzo without the walls of Rome as the resting-place of his remains. THE LAST TRIAL FOR WITCHCRAFT. actly a person of amiable temper, she had, for that and other reasons, come to be re THE skepticism which arose and pre-garded by her neighbors as a witch. century, had at least one excellent effect -that of uprooting a multitude of popular superstitions, among which one of the most formidable was the belief in witchcraft. It may not, perhaps, be generally remembered, that at the time when Steele and Addison were writing the "Spectator," witchcraft was still a capital offence, and that persons accused of it had suffered the penalty of death not many years before. It was in 1691 that Mr. Justice Holt put the first serious check upon prosecutions of this sort in the English courts of justice; but we nevertheless find him five years later presiding at the trial of one Elizabeth Horner, who was charged with "bewitching three children of William Bovet, one of whom was dead." Mrs. Horner was acquitted; and it was afterward remarked by the good Dr. Hutchinson, that "no inconvenience hath followed her acquittal." Later than this, however, that is to say, in the year 1712, a poor woman in Hertfordshire was tried, and actually "found guilty," upon an indictment charging her with "conversing with the devil in the shape of a cat"-a form of accusation which certainly threw ridicule over the whole proceeding; but, in conformity with the verdict, the judge was nevertheless obliged to sentence the prisoner to be hanged, and was able to save her only through the intervention of a "pardon," which he subsequently obtained in her behalf. As it may serve to give us a glimpse into the condition of rural England nearly a century and a half ago, when the schoolmaster was less abroad than he even is at present, it is here proposed to relate the story of this last of the witchcraft prosecutions. The particulars are drawn from Mr. Wright's lately published "Narratives of Sorcery and Magic," a work well worthy of perusal by such as may be curious respecting the history of popular delusions. Be it known, then, that in the year 1712 aforesaid, there was living at Walkern, in the county of Hertford, England, a poor woman of the name of Jane Wenham. It is not clear whether she was an old woman or a young one, or a woman of middle age, but in all probability she was "growing into years;" and being not ex | in the parish chanced to die, the ignorant, stupid people ascribed their losses to Jenny Wenham's sorcery. This was particularly the case with a farmer named Chapman, one of whose laborers, Matthew Gilson, told him a strange sort of story, which seemed to imply that he (Matthew) had been wondrously bewitched himself. This man was subsequently examined before the magistrates, and he then made a curious deposition. He declared “that on New-year's day last past, he, carrying straw upon a fork from Mrs. Gardner's barn, met Jane Wenham, who asked him for some straw, which he refused to give her; then she said she would take some, and accordingly took some away from this informant. And, further, this informant saith, that on the 29th of January last, when this informant was threshing in the barn of his master, John Chapman, an old woman in a riding-hood or cloak, he knows not which, came to the barn door, and asked him for a pennyworth of straw; he told her he could give her none, and she went away muttering. And this informant saith, that after the woman was gone he was not able to work, but ran out of the barn as far as a place called Munder's hill, (which was above three miles from Walkern,) and asked at a house there for a pennyworth of straw, and they refused to give him any; he went further to some dung-heaps, and took some straw from thence, and pulled off his shirt, and brought it home in his shirt; he knows not what moved him to this, but says he was forced to do it he knows not how." A part of this singular statement was corroborated by another witness, who declared that he saw Matthew Gilson returning with the straw in his shirt; that he moved along at a great pace; and that, instead of passing over a bridge, he walked straight through the water. On hearing the story, John Chapman felt confirmed in the suspicions which he entertained against Mrs. Wenham; and on meeting her one day shortly afterward, he ventured to tell her a bit of his mind, applying at the same time several offensive epithets, whereof that of "witch" was one of the mildest and least opprobrious. It would seem, however, that he rather "caught a Tartar;" for on the 9th of speak, crying out, "I'm ruined and unFebruary, Jane Wenham went to Sir done;" and after she had a little recovered Henry Chauncey, a magistrate, and ob- herself, she gave the following relation of tained a warrant against Chapman for def- what had happened to her. She said amation. In the sequel, the quarrel be- when she was left alone she found "a tween Mrs. Wenham and the farmer was strange roaming in her hand "-what this referred to the decision of the parish cler- might signify we cannot exactly undergyman, the Rev. Mr. Gardiner, who, in stand-however, she went on to say, that settling the matter, appears to have spok-"her mind ran upon Jane Wenham, and en somewhat harshly to the woman, advising her to live more peaceably with her neighbors, but nevertheless condemning Chapman to pay her one shilling as a compensation for the injury sustained through his abuse. she thought she must run some whither; that accordingly she ran up the close, but looked back several times at the house, thinking she should never see it more; that she climbed over a five-bar gate, and ran along the highway up a hill; that there she met two of John Chapman's men, one of whom took hold of her hand, saying she should go with them; but she was forced away from them, not being able to Chapman, whom, she said, she met on horseback, and would fain have spoken to him, but could not; then she made her way toward Cromer, as far as a place called Hockney-lane, where she looked behind her, and saw a little old woman muffled in a riding-hood, who asked her whither she was going. She answered, To Cromer, to fetch some sticks to make her fire; the old woman told her there were now no sticks at Cromer, and bade her go to that oak-tree and pluck some from thence, which she did and laid them on the ground. The old woman bade her pull off her gown and apron, and wrap the sticks in them, and asked her whether she had e'er a pin. Upon her answering she had none, the old woman gave her a large crooked pin, bade her pin up the bundle, and then vanished away; after which she ran home with her bundle of sticks, and sat down in the kitchen stripped, as Mr. Gardiner found her." Here it might have been hoped the business would have ended. But Mr. Gardiner, though a clergyman, was as firm a believer in witchcraft as farmer Chapman; and presently a circumstance trans-speak, either to them or to one Daniel pired which led him to suppose that the old woman was dissatisfied with the kind of justice he had given her, and that, therefore, by way of vengeance, she had determined to perform a stroke of witchcraft in his household. His judgment had been delivered in the parsonage-house kitchen, in the presence of Anne Thorn, a servant maid, who was sitting by the fire, having the evening before "put her knee out," and had just then got it set. Jane Wenham and Chapman being gone, Mr. Gardiner had returned into the parlor to his wife, in company with a neighbor of the name of Bragge. These three persons, according to their several depositions, had not been seated together more than six or seven minutes, when they heard "a strange yelling noise in the kitchen;" and on Mr. Gardiner going out to see what was the matter, he "found this Anne Thorn stripped to her shirt sleeves, howling and wringing her hands in a dismal manner," but quite incapable of uttering anything articulately. The reverend gentleman called aloud for Mrs. Gardiner and Mr. Bragge, who thereupon sprang up and followed him. Mrs. Gardiner, with a woman's impatience to solve a mystery, asked the girl what was the matter with her; and the latter, "not being able to speak," pointed earnestly at a bundle which lay upon the floor, and which her mistress thereupon took up and unpinned, and "found it to be the girl's gown and apron, and a parcel of oaken twigs with dead leaves wrapped up therein." As soon as the bundle was opened, Anne began to VOL. VI.-5 On hearing the girl's relation, all parties were sufficiently astonished and perplexed; Mrs. Gardiner, however, exclaimed, "We will burn the witch"-alluding to a received notion, that when the thing bewitched was burned, the witch was certain to appear; and accordingly she took the twigs, together with the pin, and threw them into the fire. By a singular coincidence, Jane Wenham immediately came into the room, pretending, it is said, to inquire after Anne Thorne's mother, and "saying she had an errand to do to her from Ardley Bury, (Sir Henry Chauncey's house,) to wit, that she must go thither to wash next day." Now according to the depositions of the prosecutors, "this mother Thorn had been in the house all the time that Jane Wenham was there with John Chapman, and heard nothing of it, and was then gone home." Of course it was very likely that Jane Wenham might have forgotten to mention the message, owing to the excitement she was in through her unpleasant affair with Chapman; at any rate, no such charitable excuse was thought of by the wonderfully shrewd people who had her case to deal with. On hearing her statement, "Mrs. Gardiner bade Jane Wenham go to Eliza- | beth Thorn, and tell her there was work enough for her there "-meaning, that she would be required to nurse her daughter Anne-and thereupon the supposed witch | departed. Furthermore, the depositions say, that "upon inquiry made afterward, it was found that she never was ordered to deliver any such errand from Ardley Bury;" | and so there seemed to be but one reasonable inference left, namely, that Jane Wenham, being a witch, her presence in Mr. Gardiner's kitchen had been mysteriously enforced by the burning of the twigs and pin aforesaid! Here, at any rate, was an excellent groundwork for a charge of witchcraft. Chapman's two men, and the horseman, deposed to meeting Anne Thorn on the road, as she related; and others of Mrs. Wenham's enemies came forward to testify that several people had previously been bewitched by her. The clergyman was eager to promote the prosecution; and on his solicitation a warrant was obtained from Sir Henry Chauncey for the woman's apprehension. The examinations were taken in due form before Sir Henry at Ardley Bury; and he directed four women to search Jane Wenham's person for the customary "witches' marks," but none, it seems, were found. Next day, however, the examination was continued, and the evidence of Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner was taken, affirming the particulars already mentioned. Jane Wenham perceived that the accusation was assuming a formidable appearance, and in her dread of being sent to jail, she earnestly entreated Mrs. Gardiner "not to swear against her," and offered to submit to the "trial of swimming in the water"-a common mode of testing the guilt of suspected witches. Sir Henry, who seems to have yielded to most | of the prejudices of the prosecutors, refused to allow of such a mode of trial. But there was another clergyman, the vicar of Ardley, no less superstitious than the rector of Walkern, who undertook to try her by a still more infallible method, that of repeating the Lord's prayer, a thing which no witch was considered capable of doing. Being submitted to this ordeal, the poor woman, either in her confusion, or through lamentable ignorance, repeated it incorrectly, and hence another proof was obtained in support of the charge against her. The parson, moreover, so frightened her by threats as to induce her to confess that she actually was a witch, and further, to accuse three other women of Walkern with being her confederates in unlawful practices, and more especially with having a direct intercourse with Satan. The prosecution seemed now in a fair way of prospering; and accordingly Jane Wenham was committed to prison to take her trial at the assizes. On the 4th of March the case came on before Mr. Justice Powell, who was not a little puzzled how to deal with it. No less than sixteen witnesses, three of them being clergymen, were heard against the prisoner, and all the absurdities before set forth were solemnly recapitulated and affirmed. The poor woman declared her innocence, and the judge did what he could to damage the proceedings. Nevertheless, a Hertfordshire jury found her "guilty ;" and Mr. Justice Powell had to put on the black cap and pronounce sentence of death according to the statute for such cases made and provided. He certainly never intended that the sentence should be executed; but that being the legal penalty for proven witchcraft, he had no alternative but to go through the formality. A pardon was subsequently obtained, and the poor woman was set at liberty, much to the horror of her superstitious persecutors. To save her from any further ill-treatment or annoyance, an enlightened and kind gentleman, Colonel Plummer, took her under his protection, placing her in a cottage on his own estate, where, it is agreeable to learn, she "passed the rest of her life in a quiet, inoffensive manner." Such is as faithful an account as we can give of the last trial for witchcraft. It is, perhaps, a story which would scarcely be worth the telling, were it not in some sort calculated to show us the harassing and dangerous persecutions to which the poor and neglected were in former days liable. Whatever may be the difficulties and disasters of the present time, there is certainly ground for congratulation in the fact, that no one can now become the victim of any such ridiculous accusation. Witchcraft has long been an obsolete delusion. One of the most important results of the trial here in question, was the publication, two or three years afterward, of the famous "Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft," by the king of England's chaplain in ordinary, Dr. Francis Hutchinson-a book which gave the last blow to the declining superstition; from that time the belief in witchcraft lingered only among the most ignorant portions of the population, and now at last there seems reason to conclude that it is well extinguished. [For the National Magazine.] INSTAURATIO. "And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged." ALL was a waste profound, Shoreless the drown'd orb swung, Each mountain brow around Wide wat'ry arms were flung; And overshadowing all, A dead world's mourning pall, One sombre cloud of brooding blackness hung, When lo! to still their strong and fierce unrest, The breath of God breathed o'er the billows' breast. And giant mountains rise From out the dusky plain, Above the lowering surge, Like timid Nereids from their parent main, Where dovelike, tired of the unvarying deep, Each moonbeam pale and sighing breeze may sleep. Then silence kept the earth, Silence than chaos old, As ere creation's birth, The heavens yet unroll'd, In sluggish atoms, uninspired and cold As in her vaults, when spoken nature's doom, A dead creation shall have found a tomb. That pallid demon, death, Aims his dread shaft no more, For nations of the dead, Unburied, strew each shore; Meets the cold moon's sad gaze, And restless ghosts roam Stygian deserts o'erLike baffled wolf, amid a blasted fold, He roam'd a waste, wide, voiceless, cheerless cold. |