The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne | Page 6

spirit which they had left behind in the Old World. They had come to America to escape despotism, but they had brought despotism in their own hearts. They could escape from the Stuarts, but there was no escape from human nature.
It is likely that their immediate progenitors would not have carried the witchcraft craze to such an extreme. The emigrating Puritans were a fairly well-educated class of men and women, but their children did not enjoy equal opportunities. The new continent had to be subdued physically and reorganized before any mental growth could be raised there. Levelling the forest was a small matter beside clearing the land of stumps and stones. All hands were obliged to work hard, and there was little opportunity for intellectual development or social culture. As a logical consequence, an era ensued not unlike the dark ages of Europe. But this was essential to the evolution of a new type of man, and for the foundation of American nationality; and it was thus that the various nationalities of Europe arose out of the ruins of the Roman Empire.
The scenes that took place in Judge Hathorne's court-room have never been equalled since in American jurisprudence. Powerful forces came into play there, and the reports that have been preserved read like scenes from Shakespeare. In the case of Rebecca Nurse, the Judge said to the defendant:
"'You do know whether you are guilty, and have familiarity with the Devil; and now when you are here present to see such a thing as these testify,--and a black man whispering in your ear, and devils about you,--what do you say to it?'"
To which she replied:
"'It is all false. I am clear.' Whereupon Mrs. Pope, one of the witnesses, fell into a grievous fit." [Footnote: Upham's "Salem Witchcraft," ii. 64.]
Alas, poor beleaguered soul! And one may well say, "What imaginations those women had!" Tituba, the West Indian Aztec who appears in this social-religious explosion as the chief and original incendiary,-- verily the root of all evil,--gave the following testimony:
"Q. 'Did you not pinch Elizabeth Hubbard this morning?'
"A. 'The man brought her to me, and made me pinch her.'
"Q. 'Why did you go to Thomas Putnam's last night and hurt his child?'
"A. 'They pull and haul me, and make me go.'
"Q. 'And what would they have you do?'
"A. 'Kill her with a knife.'
"(Lieutenant Fuller and others said at this time, when the child saw these persons, and was tormented by them, that she did complain of a knife,--that they would have her cut her head off with a knife.)
"Q. 'How did you go?'
"A. 'We ride upon sticks, and are there presently.'
"Q. 'Do you go through the trees or over them?'
"A. 'We see nothing, but are there presently.'
"Q. 'Why did you not tell your master?'
"A. 'I was afraid. They said they would cut off my head if I told.'
"Q. 'Would you not have hurt others, if you could?'
"A. 'They said they would hurt others, but they could not.'
"Q. 'What attendants hath Sarah Good?'
"A. 'A yellow-bird, and she would have given me one.'
"Q. 'What meat did she give it?'
"A. 'It did suck her between her fingers.'".
This might serve as an epilogue to "Macbeth," and the wonder is that an unlettered Indian should have had the wit to make such apt and subtle replies. It is also noteworthy that these strange proceedings took place after the expulsion of the royal governor, and previous to the provincial government of William III. If Sir Edmund Andros had remained, the tragedy might have been changed into a farce.
After all, it appears that John Hathorne was not a lawyer, for he describes himself in his last will, dated June 27, 1717, as a merchant, and it is quite possible that his legal education was no better than that of the average English squire in Fielding's time. It is evident, however, from the testimony given above, that he was a strong believer in the supernatural, and here if anywhere we find a relationship between him and his more celebrated descendant. Nathaniel Hawthorne was too clear-sighted to place confidence in the pretended revelations of trance mediums, and he was not in the least superstitious; but he was remarkably fond of reading ghost stories, and would have liked to believe them, if he could have done so in all sincerity. He sometimes felt as if he were a ghost himself, gliding noiselessly in the walks of men, and wondered that the sun should cast a shadow from him. However, we cannot imagine him as seated in jurisdiction at a criminal tribunal. His gentle nature would have recoiled from that, as it might from a serpent.
In the Charter Street burial-ground there is a slate gravestone, artistically carved about its edges, with the name, "Col. John Hathorne Esq.," upon it. It is somewhat sunken into