[25] Athen. Oxon., Vol. ii., p. 175. Edit. 1721.
[26] Old Anthony chronicles this battle of the kerchiefs with a sly humour very different from his usual solemn matter-of-fact style.
[27] What would Dr. Whitaker have thought of the following explosion, in which Webster sounds the tocsin with a vehemence and vigour which no Macbriar or Kettledrumle of the period could have surpassed. The extract is from his Judgment Set and Books Opened:—
"All those that claim an Ordination by Man, or from Man, that speak from the Spirit of the World, from Wit, Learning and Humane Reason, who Preach for Hire, and make Merchandize of the Souls of Men; I witness they are all Baal's Priests and Idol-Shepherds, who destroy the Sheep, and are Theives and Robbers, who came not in by the Door of the Sheep-fold, but climbed up another way, and are the Magicians, Sorcerers, Inchanters, Soothsayers, Necromancers, and Consulters with Familiar Spirits, which the Lord will cut off out of the Land, so that his People shall have no more Soothsayers; and as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these resist the Truth; Men of corrupt Minds, reprobate concerning the Faith; but they shall proceed no farther, for their Folly shall be manifest to all Men, as theirs also was. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the Errors of Balaam, for Reward, and Perished in the Gainsaying of Core. These are Spots in your Feasts of Charity, when they Feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: Clouds they are without Water, carried of Winds; Trees, whose Fruit withered, without Fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the Roots: Raging Waves of the Sea, foaming out their own Shame, wandring Stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of Darkness for ever."
[28] "Metallographia: or, An History of Metals. Wherein is declared the signs of Ores and Minerals both before and after digging, the causes and manner of their generations, their kinds, sorts and differences; with the description of sundry new Metals or Semi-Metals, and many other things pertaining to Mineral knowledge. As also, the handling and shewing of their Vegetability, and the discussion of the most difficult Questions belonging to Mystical Chymistry, as of the Philosophers Gold, their Mercury, the Liquor Alkahest, Aurum potabile, and such like. Gathered forth of the most approved Authors that have written in Greek, Latine, or High Dutch; With some Observations and Discoveries of the Author himself. By John Webster, Practitioner in Physick and Chirurgery. Qui principia naturalia in seipso ignoraverit, hic jam multum remotus est ab arte nostra, quoniam non habet radicem veram supra quam intentionem suam fundet. Geber. Sum. perfect. l. c. i. p. 21.
Sed non ante datur telluris operta subire,
Auricomos quam quis discerpserit arbore fœtus.
Virg. Æneid. l. 6.
London, Printed by A.C. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in Duck-lane, 1671, 4to."
[29] Dr. Whitaker's assertion, that Webster was "neglected alike by the wise and unwise," seems to be a mere gratis dictum. The age of folios was rapidly passing away; but few folios of the period appear to have been more generally read, if we are to judge at least from its being frequently mentioned and quoted, than Webster's Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft. The same able writer's "Doubt whether Sir Matthew Hale ever read Webster's Discovery of Supposed Witchcraft," might easily have been satisfied by a reference to any common life of that great judge, which would have shown the historian of Whalley that Hale died before the book was published. Nor is Dr. Whitaker correct in stating that all tradition of Webster is now lost in the neighbourhood where he resided. The following anecdote, which would have delighted him, I had from an old inhabitant of Burnley, to whom it had been handed down by his grandfather:—In the days of Webster's fanaticism, during the usurpation, he is stated, in the zealous crusade then so common against superstitious relics, to have headed a party by whom the three venerable crosses, now set up in the churchyard of Whalley, commonly called the Crosses of Paulinus, and supposed to be coeval with the first preaching of Christianity in the North of England, were removed and taken away from their site and appropriated as a boundary fence for some adjoining fields. After the Restoration, and when his religious views had become sobered and settled, he is said, in an eager desire to atone for the desecration of which he had been guilty, to have purchased the crosses from the person who was then in possession of them, and to have been at the cost of re-erecting them on their present site, from which no sacrilegious hand will, I trust, ever again remove them. It is further said, that Webster's favourite and regular walk, in the latter part of his life, till his infirmities rendered him unable to take exercise of any kind, was to the remains of Whalley Abbey; and that a path along the banks of the stream which glides by those most picturesque and pleasing ruins, was long called "Webster's Walk." If this tradition be founded in fact, and I give it as I received it, John Webster, of Clitheroe, if not identical, as Mr. Collier has contended, with the dramatic poet of that name, must have felt something assimilated in spirit to the fine inspiration of those noble lines of the latter:—
"I do love these ancient ruins.
We never tread upon them but we set
Our foot upon some reverend history;
And, questionless, here in this open court,
Which now lies naked to the injuries
Of stormy weather, some men lie interred that
Lov'd the Church so well and gave so largely to't,
They thought it should have canopied their bones
Till doomsday: but all things have their end.
Churches and cities, which have diseases like to men,
Must have like death that we have."
[30] Webster's death took place on the 18th June, 1682. He left an extensive library, composed principally of chemical, hermetical, and philosophical works, of which the MSS. catalogue is now in the possession of my friend, the Rev. T. Corser. I have two books which appear to have at one time formed part of his collection, from having his favourite signature, Johannes Hyphantes, in his autograph, on the title pages. Before I conclude with Webster, I ought perhaps to observe, that in the valuable edition of the works of Webster, the dramatic poet, published by the Rev. A. Dyce, that most accurate and judicious editor has proved indisputably, by an elaborate argument, that the John Webster, the writer of the Examen Academiarum, and John Webster, the author of the Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft, were one and the same person, who was not identical with the dramatic writer of the same name. Mr. Dyce does not, however, appear to have been aware, that the identity of the author of the Examen Academiarum and the writer on witchcraft is distinctly stated by Dr. Henry More, in his Præfatio Generalissima, to the Latin edition of his works, whose testimony being that of a contemporary, who was, like Webster, "a Cambridge scholar," may perhaps be considered sufficient, without resorting to internal and circumstantial evidence. The inscription on Webster's monument in the chapel of St. Mary Magdalen, at Clitheroe, is too characteristic and curious to be omitted. I give it entire:—