Читать книгу The Discoverie of Witchcraft - Reginald Scot - Страница 12

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[Rom. and Ital. of this reversed from original.]

Ir, I see among other malefactors manie poore old women convented before you for working of miracles, other wise called witchcraft, and therefore I thought you also a meet person to whom I might cōmend my booke. And here I have occasion to speake of your sincere administration of justice, and of your dexteritie, discretion, charge, and travell emploied in that behalfe, wherof I am oculatus testis. Howbeit I had rather refer the reader to common fame, and their owne eies and eares to be satisfied; than to send them to a Stationers shop, where manie times lies are vendible, and truth contemptible. For I being of your house, of your name, & of your bloud; my foot being under your table, my hand in your dish, or rather in your pursse, might bee thought to flatter you in that, wherein (I knowe) I should rather offend you than please you. And what need I currie favour with my most assured friend? And if I should onelie publish those vertues (though they be manie) which give me speciall occasion to exhibit this my travell unto you, I should doo as a painter, that describeth the foot of a notable personage, and leaveth all the best features in his bodie untouched.

I therefore (at this time) doo onelie desire you to consider of my report, concerning the evidence that is commonlie brought before you against them. See first whether the evidence be not frivolous, & whether the proofs brought against them be not incredible, consisting of ghesses, presumptions, & impossibilities contrarie to reason, scrip/ture,A a 2 and nature. See also what persons complaine upon them, whether they be not of the basest, the unwisest, & most faithles kind of people. Also/[A. vi. v.] may it please you to waie what accusations and crimes they laie to their charge, namelie: She was at my house of late, she would have had a pot of milke, she departed in a chafe bicause she had it not, she railed, she curssed, she mumbled and whispered, and finallie she said she would be even with me: and soone after my child, my cow, my sow, or my pullet died, or was strangelie taken. Naie (if it please your Worship) I have further proofe: I was with a wise woman, and she told me I had an ill neighbour, & that she would come to my house yer it were long, and so did she; and that she had a marke above hir waste, & so had she: and God forgive me, my stomach hath gone against hir a great while. Hir mother before hir was counted a witch, she hath beene beaten and scratched by the face till bloud was drawne upon hir, bicause she hath beene suspected, & afterwards some of those persons were said to amend. These are the certeinties that I heare in their evidences.

Note also how easilie they may be brought to confesse that which they never did, nor lieth in the power of man to doo: and then see whether I have cause to write as I doo. Further, if you shall see that infidelitie, poperie, and manie other manifest heresies be backed and shouldered, and their professors animated and hartened, by yeelding to creatures such infinit power as is wrested out of Gods hand, and attributed to witches: finallie, if you shall perceive that I have faithfullie and trulie delivered and set downe the condition and state of the witch, and also of the witchmonger, and have confuted by reason and lawe, and by the word of God it selfe, all mine adversaries objections and arguments: then let me have your countenance against them that maliciouslie oppose themselves against me./

My greatest adversaries are yoong ignorance and old custome.A a 2 For what follie soever tract of time hath fostered, it is/[A. vii.] so superstitiouslie pursued of some, as though no error could be acquainted with custome. But if the lawe of nations would joine with such custome, to the maintenance of ignorance, and to the suppressing of knowledge; the civilest countrie in the world would soone become barbarous, &c. For as knowledge and time discovereth errors, so dooth superstition and ignorance in time breed them. And concerning the opinions of such, as wish that ignorance should rather be mainteined, than knowledge busilie searched for, bicause thereby offense may grow: I answer,John. 5. that we are commanded by Christ himselfe to search for knowledge: Prov. 15, 1.for it is the kings honour (as Salomon saith) to search out a thing.

Aristotle said to Alexander, that a mind well furnished was more beautifull than a bodie richlie araied. What can be more odious to man, or offensive to God, than ignorance: for through ignorance the Jewes did put Christ to death.Acts. 3.

Proverbs. 9. Which ignorance whosoever forsaketh, is promised life everlasting: and therfore among Christians it should be abhorred above all other things. For even as when we wrestle in the darke, we tumble in the mire, &c: so when we see not the truth, we wallow in errors. A blind man may seeke long in the rishes yer he find a needle; and as soone is a doubt discussed by ignorance. Finallie, truth is no sooner found out in ignorance, than a sweet savor in a dunghill. And if they will allow men knowledge, and give them no leave to use it, men were much better be without it than have it. Matth. 25.

Matth. 5.

Luke. 8.For it is, as to have a tallent, and to hide it under the earth; or to put a candle under a bushell: or as to have a ship, & to let hir lie alwaies in the docke: which thing how profitable it is, I can saie somewhat by experience./

But hereof I need saie no more, for everie man seeth thatA a 2 v none can be happie who knoweth not what felicitie meaneth. For what availeth it to have riches, and not to have the use/ thereof? [A. vii. v.]Trulie the heathen herein deserved more commendation than manie christians, for they spared no paine, no cost, nor travell to atteine to knowledge. Pythagoras travelled from Thamus to Aegypt, and afterwards into Crete and Lacedæmonia: and Plato out of Athens into Italie and Aegypt, and all to find out hidden secrets and knowledge: which when a man hath, he seemeth to be separated from mortalitie. For pretious stones, and all other creatures of what value soever, are but counterfeits to this jewell: they are mortall, corruptible, and inconstant; this is immortall, pure and certeine. Wherfore if I have searched and found out any good thing, that ignorance and time hath smothered, the same I commend unto you: to whom though I owe all that I have, yet am I bold to make other partakers with you in this poore gift.

Your loving cousen, Reg. Scot.