The displaying of supposed witchcraft

by John Webster

Pag. 3.

1. In the first place we need not travel far, either in regard of time or place, to find Precedents of such as have undergone no small censures and subsannations for vindicating Truth, and labouring the advancement of it, though against common and deep-rooted Opinion. So ill entertainment new Inventors and Inventions have always found amongst the present Masters of several Professions, and those that made the World believe, that they alone had gained the Monopoly of all Learning. Our learned Countryman Doctor Hackwell in his Preface to his Apology, hath sufficiently proved this particular: whose profound Piece of proving no decay in Nature (a truth now sufficiently known, and assented to) found no small opposition, both from the Learned in Theology, and other persons, and underwent many sharp censures, until men had more considerately weighed the strength and cogency of his Arguments, which carry sufficient evidence to confute rational persons. Our learned and most industrious Anatomist Dr. Harvey, who (notwithstanding the late Cavils of some) first found forth and evidenced to the World that rare and profitable discovery of the Circulation of the Blood, did undergo the like Fate: who for eighteen or twenty years together did groan under the heavy censure of all the Galenists and expert Anatomists almost in Europe, and was railed upon, and bitterly written against, not only by such as Alexander Rosse and Dr. Primrose, but by Riolanus and others, and not forborn by that famous Physician of Roterodam, Zacharias Sylvius, who ingenuously confesseth thus much: Primum mihi inventum hoc non placuit, quod & voce & scripto publicè testatus sum; sed dum postea ei resultando & explodendo vehementiùs incumbo, refutor & ipse & explodor: adeò sunt rationes ejus non persuadentes, sed cogentes: diligenter omnes examinavi, & in vivis aliquot canibus eum in finem à me dissectis, verissimum comperi. Which was a most candid and free retractation and confession of his own errours, and may be proposed as an example to all rash and unadvised Censurers. Neither could this most clear and evidential Verity (which falls under ocular Demonstration and manifest Experiments) find countenance in the World, until that Wallæus, Plempius, and divers other judicious and accurate Anatomists, had sound the truth of Harvey’s opinion, by their own tryals and ocular inspection: so difficult it is to overthrow an old radicated opinion. For I have known some years ago, that a person for owning or maintaining the Circulation of the blood, should have been censured and derided, as much by other Physicians, as one should be now for denying the same: so hard it is to root out an opinion (though never so false and groundless) if once setled in the brains of many, and hath had a long current of continued reputation and belief. And it is much more to consider the ignorance, stupidity, and perversness of those, that in this Age of Knowledge dare take upon them to censure (nay to condemn) that Society of persons, and their endeavours, who have a just, pious, merciful, and learned King for their Founder, and the greatest number of Nobility and Gentry, renowned both for divine and humane Knowledge, that can be chosen forth of the three Nations for their Members, and whose undertakings and level are the most high, noble, and excellent that ever yet the World was partaker of. And yet (which may be wondred at) I have not only met with many, that do censure and misjudge their vast and laudable enterprise, but even have been bold to appear in Print to censure and scandalize their proceedings, as is manifest in that Piece styled Plus ultra, written by Mr. Stubbs of Warwick, wherein he hath effected as much as Dogs do by barking at the Moon. But it is plain, that highness of place, or greatness of parts exempts no man from evil tongues, or bad censures. And to this purpose I cannot but add Dr. Casaubon, who as he had a long sickness of body, so doubtless he wanted not some distemper of mind, when in his Treatise of Credulity and Incredulity, he uttered this. “If I may speak my mind (he saith) without offence, this prodigious propensity to innovation in all kinds, but in matters of Learning particularly, which so many upon no ground, that I can see, or appearance of reason, are possessed with; I know not what we should more probably ascribe it unto, than to some sad Constellation or influence.” Alas! poor man, he was so blind, that he could see no ground or appearance of reason for the usefulness of Experimental Philosophy, nor for the Institution of the Royal Society, but must ascribe it to the Stars: it is a wonder why he ascribes it not to natural Melancholy, as he doth almost all strange Effects, in his Book of Enthusiasm or why not unto Demons or Witches, as he doth the most things in the Treatise quoted.

2. That learned and painful person Renatus des Cartes, who brought in, revived, and refined the old Doctrine of Atoms, ascribed to Democritus, and other of the Ancients, found for a long time much opposition; insomuch that when he lived at Utrecht in Holland, the Aristotelian Professors of that University became so inflamed with envy at him, that their Scholars raised the Rabble of the City at the sound of a Bell, to drive him out of Town. And yet this mans Philosophy hath had the luck to triumph in that University, where so much contempt was poured upon him; for Henricus Regius, the publick Professor of Physick there, hath published a Book of Natural Philosophy, agreeable to the Principles and design of Des Cartes: and is in a manner generally received and applauded; and by the honourable Mr. Boyle much made use of, and by him styled the Corpuscularian Philosophy. So was not that most learned and diligent Mathematician Galalæus imprisoned for seeing more than others could by the help of his Optick Glasses, losing (as one saith) his own liberty in Prison, for giving the Earth liberty to fetch a round about the Sun? And yet now to what great height of improvement are Telescopes arrived unto, and what credit is given to the Observations made with them? though in their birth their first Author and User so much opposed and punished; for all Inventions that are new (as well as Opinions) are in their beginnings opposed and censured, not considering, that all acquired Knowledge, and all Arts and Sciences were once new, and had their beginnings.

3. When Josephus Quercetanus and Sir Theodore Mayern did labour to introduce the practice of Chymical Physick into the City of Paris, what cruel censures and scandals did they undergo by all the rest of the Physicians of the Colledge, so that they were accounted illiterate and ignorant Fellows and dangerous Empiricks, not fit to practise in the King of France his Dominions, and so were sentenced by the Colledge, and prohibited to practise? So far did ignorance, self-interest, and blind malice prevail against these two persons, of so much Worth and Learning, insomuch that the former was made Physician to the King of France, and lived to see despised Chymistry to flourish, where it had been most contemned, himself to be honoured, and his Chymical Works to be published, and to be had in great and general esteem with all that were Lovers of Learning. The latter likewise out-lived the malice of all his enemies, and saw himself advanced to be Physician to two potent and renowned Kings of England, and to have the general practice of the most of the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom, and to live to a fair old age, and to dye vastly rich. So that even the bravest men, for their noble endeavors for the good of Mankind, have always found harsh usage.

Mund. subter. lib. 11. sect. 2. pag. 277.

Prov. 26. 12.

Hist. Magic. c. 14. p. 177.

De Arte Lullian. Præf.

Vide Relat. Paris. impres. Gallicè, 1631.

4. It hath fared no better with divers persons that have written of abstruse and mysterious Subjects, such as were Arnoldus de Villa Nova and Raimundus Lullius, who, because they handled that secret and sublime Art of the Transmutation of Metals, were by the ignorance and malice of Francis Pegna and the John Tredeschen of Rome, Athanasius Kircherus, with some others, branded with the name of Magicians, taken in the worst sense. Facile est reprehendere & maledicere, so apt are men through over-weening pride and self-conceitedness, as though they were ignorant of nothing, to take upon them to censure all things, when Artists only are fit to judge of those proper Arts, in which they are verst and bred in, and not others: For it is not sufficient for a man to be verst in many parts of Learning, but also in that very Science or Art, in which the Question is propounded: as for Example; Suppose a man to be well read in School Theology, Metaphysicks, Logick, Grammar, Rhetorick, Ethicks, and Physicks, yet for all this how unable were he to resolve one of the difficultest Propositions in Euclid? no more can any person, though never so generally learned, if he perfectly do not understand the method, terms, ground, matter, and end of the Writers in mystical Chymistry, be any competent Judge of their Art, nor of the nature of Transmutation. And this might justly have bridled Kircher, and many other rash and vain Censurers to hold back their judgment, until they perfectly understand the matter, about which they are to give judgment, and to have considered that Maxime of the wisest of men: Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him. But notwithstanding these groundless slanders against Arnoldus, that he was guilty of Diabolical Magick, from which the Pen of learned Nandæus hath totally discharged him, though he otherwise (according to his petulant humor and prejudiced opinion against the Art of Transmutation, of which he was no competent Judge, for the reason foregoing) cast some unworthy reflections both upon him, and Lully, yet he confesseth (which is but the bare truth, as every learned Physician doth sufficiently know, that have heedfully read his Writings of the Art of Medicine) in these words, “That it is certain, he was the learnedest Physician of his time, equally acquainted with the Latine, Greek, and Arabian Tongues, and one whose Writings sufficiently witness his abilities in the Mathematicks, Medicine, and Philosophy, the practice whereof gained him favour and imployment about Pope Clement, and Frederick King of Sicily, who certainly would never have made use of him, if he had thought him a Conjurer or Magician, such as many judged he was.” As for Lully (notwithstanding the malevolent froth of some rash, malicious, and ignorant Writers) he was guilty of no other Magick but what was natural, lawful, and laudable, as his profound and learned Works (if his blind Adversaries had ever taken pains to have perused them, who frequently censure and condemn those things they never saw, read, or understood) do witness beyond all exception, and is all justified by the testimonies of so many learned and judicious persons, that more cannot be said to his praise and vindication. The most of his learned Works being kept in the Library at Oxford, written in an ancient hand: which would never have been done, if they had not been highly esteemed and prised. For as Zetznerus the great Stationer of Stasburgh saith: “Tantæ suo fuisse ævo authoritatis atq; æstimationis legitur, ut justissimi Arragonum Reges eum in privilegiis eidem concessis, magnum in Philosophia magistrum, & mirandarum artium & scientiarum authorem nominârint.” Lastly, one Father Pacificus in his Journey from Persia 1628. came into the Isle of Majorca, where Lully was born, and to his great admiration found the Statue of Lully there in Wood curiously coloured, and he honoured as a Saint (whom he had before judged an Heretick) as also a Society of Professors following the Doctrine of Lully, and called Raymundines or Lullists, and that they affirmed, that by Divine illumination he had the perfect knowledge of Nature, by which he found out the universal Medicine, by a certain Aurum potabile, by which he prolonged his life to the 145. year of his age, in which year he suffered Martyrdom. This I have produced to shew how inconsiderately and ignorantly the best learned of an Age may be, and often are wrongfully and falsely traduced and slandered, which may be a warning to all persons to take heed how they pass their censures, until they understand perfectly all that is necessary to be known about the Subject they are to give judgment of, before they utter or declare their sentence.