The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne | Page 6

then was. The forests came down to the sea-shore, and brought with
them all the weird fancies, terrors and awful forebodings which the
human mind could conjure up. They feared the Indians, the wild beasts,
and most of all one another, for society was not yet sufficiently
organized to afford that repose and contentment of 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