Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, DEC. 13, 1900. Witchcraft.

Manawatu Herald, 13 December 1900, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, DEC. 13, 1900. Witchcraft.

In these enlightened days it would have seemed impossible that there could be any excuse for witchcraft, as known some hundreds of years ago, were it not that in every fair?ized town there are to bo found palmists who undertake, to do that which Christians are taught as impossible, foretell the future. People to-day are no better than yesterday and the universal craving to know what is before us permits most foolish applications to be made to those who make their living on the credulity of others. The Strand Magazine gives a brief account of the life of one known as " cunning " Murrell, otherwise James, who died at Hadlei^h. Essex, in the year 1860. He claimed to be, not so much a witch, as the devil's master, but to secure the attention of his neighbours he was not against stating that he wa? miraculously transported from place to place in the night ; and that he had made a wonderful glass wherewith a man might see through a brick wall. Science has nearly achieved some of the wonders claimed by these magicians, and the wonders of the X rays in brought forcibly to our memory, but science places her discoveries at the service of mankind instead of using them for the enriching of the few and the terrorising of the many. The unfortunate part of all wonders, if really efteoted, to the ignorant, is to raise np a dread which frequently causes a dull fury to be shown to both the wicked as well as harmless persons, and history has on reoord the cruel deaths that persons whom some chose to aocuse of witchcraft, have met. The latest form of witchcraft in the account of Murrell, brings out the weak, ignorant side of the inhabitants, as the letters stowed away by him in a box, when brought to light, shows. Some one wrote to him to know whether there was any money in his father's garden, who had been dead four

years ! Another letter urged him to jmake haste with all speed, as tht

devils had not yet been driven out of the house, and there was still bo heavy a smell of smoke and sulphur that all windows had to be left open. A woman wrote "The spring is nearly gone but no sign of happiness -for me yet. Deceit deepens upon me. The one I most wish to see happy is unsettled, some trouble presses upon his mind. Send me word whether I shall ever see him and tell him lam true. Speak openly to the person who brings this. Tell her the truth and I will repay you." Faith surely, yet misapplied, and the subject opens our eyas to th* peculiar inquisitiveness possessed by us all, perhaps inherited from our mother Eve. The faith in Murrell's healing power* was testified by long sequences of letters from all parts, as our latest patent medicines are now l , often reporting no change in the patient -or one for the worse, yet breathing no syllable of doubt, but paying for more charms, more herbs, more anything to save the sick and dying. Many were the quaintnesseß in the various letters. One ran " I have took the powder, it made me verrey quear in the stummiok pleas send sum more." The laws against witchcraft were repealed in 1786, yet in 1868 a poor old paralyzed Frenchman died in consequence of having been ducked as a wizard at Castle Hedingham, in Essex ; and in Warwickshire in 1876 a woman, Ann Turner was killed as a witch by a half-insane man. Is not everyone half -insane wdo can imagine that a fellow creature is permitted to foretell the future? Yet the desire to learn of something that it is best that we should not k/iow, is as strong now as it was in the days when Saul after condemning witchcraft, went and consulted the witch of Endor. We all want to get ahead of our neighbours and some would not hesitate to interview a seer if he could aid us in our desires ; but to those who picturo the one side must view the contrary to estimate as its true value, the inferno earth would become, if others could do unto us that which we are prepared to do unto them. The pioture of our opponent going to a witch and demanding our ruin or death is not so enchanting as that of our being able to put our opponent quietly out of the way, but what is possible on the one side is possible on the other. Grief, misfortune, and all other ills are hard enough to bear when they come upon us, and instead of their being lightened by being foretold, the time until the affliction came would be purgatory, and the impatience that would seize those to whom bright prospects were predicted would go far to take the gloss off the results. " T'is a curious world, my masters " but far better than man would make it by belief in witchcraft and such like nonsense.