Witches and Witchcraft (article)

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia

Witches and Witchcraft is an article published in the Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle on 5 april 1890.

Report of a lecture Witches and Witchcraft of the Portsmouth Literary and Scientific Society held at the Portsmouth Guildhall on 1 april 1890, attended by Arthur Conan Doyle where he spoke.


Witches and Witchcraft

Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle (5 april 1890)

NINETEENTH CENTURY VIEWS.

There was an unusually large attendance of members of the Portsmouth Literary and Scientific Society at the last ordinary meeting of the session, held in the Guildhall on Tuesday evening, when Dr. David Nicholson, F.S.A. (Scotland), an old member of the Society, renewed his acquaintance with it, and read a clever, witty, and comprehensive paper on "Witches and Witchcraft." Mr. T. A. Bramsdon occupied the chair, and the company included the following ladies and gentlemen:—

General A. W. Drayson, F.R.A.S., General J. W. Cox, C.B., F.R.G.S., Captain R. Jackson, R.N., Miss Jackson, and Miss Williams, Dr. D. Nicolson, Dr. Ward Cousins (Hon. Secretary), Mrs. and Miss Cousins, Dr. A. Conan Doyle (Hon. Secretary) and Mrs. Doyle, Dr. Baker, Dr. Manley, Dr. T. Austin, R.N., and Miss Austin, Dr. Nathan Raw, Dr. Frederick Pearse, Dr. and Mr. Wardrop, Dr. and Mrs. Walter Scott, Rev. B. D. Aldwell, M.A., Mrs. and the Misses Aldwell, Mrs. T. A. Bramsdon, Mr. and Mrs. J. Hay, Mr. and Mrs. C. Foran, Mr. and Mrs. A. Howell, Messrs. Hugh S. Maclauchlan, J. M. Ollis, R.N., J. W. F. Allnutt, M.A., F.R.A.S., S. G. J. Allnutt, E. T. Mayne, F. Aylen, C. W. Ball, J. R. Constantine, W. T. Pover, R.N., G. A. Cook, W. Inghs, R.N., J. Watkins, Mr. P. Mayston, R.N., and Mrs. Mayston, Mr. H. C. Goldsmith, R.N., Mrs. Goldsmith and Miss Pike, Mr. G. G. and Miss Hardingham, Mr. A. W. Darley, Mrs. F. Lord, Mrs. F. Skinner, Mrs. Walters and friends, Mr. T. L. Reynolds, Mr., Mrs. and the Misses Grazeliers, Mrs. and Miss Tomlinson, Mr. J. Robson, R.N., and friends, Mrs. Charles Wolseley and friends, Messrs. F. J. Thorncliff, G. F. Bell, &c.

Mr. George Edmonds was elected a member of the Society.

Dr. NICHOLSON commented by saying that nothing illustrated better the fertility and originality of the mind of man than the great variety of beings with which he had seen fit to people these regions that came under the designation of "other worlds than ours." Having enumerated many of the multifarious classes of such beings, the essayist said that, taken with reference to ourselves, they had one feature in common, which was that they took a great deal of trouble in leaving their homes and coming to visit us. The only class of human beings who had had the privilege of paying return visits was that included in the genus witch; and we ought to regard it as a great honour that our own flesh and blood, even if only in witch form, had from the earliest ages of the world's history been permitted by the invisibles to hold very extended intercourse with them. To people nowadays the belief in witches might savour strictly of the romantic, but it was the basis of terrible realism in days of yore, when it was an engine of social destruction and disintegration, and a lever whereby were permitted the foulest and most bloody, as well as the most needless atrocities that had served to darken the pages of history in civilised times and countries. Historical research into this belief in witches brought down to us a picture of our ancestors at home, and it was with this view that he had prepared his paper. Witches and witchcraft and witchcraft might practically be identified with four periods of history — Scriptural, classical, mediaeval, and modern. The Scriptural witch evidently belonged to a class of persons who dared to assert their authority in the face of Divine decrees, and who practised atrocities and black arts to the detriment of their fellow-creatures, and perhaps more especially dealt in poisons. In classical times the witch, although the subject of special laws, did not occupy a very prominent position; her designs were understood to be mainly political, and to consist in the removal by death of emperors and others high in authority. The mediaeval witch was essentially a compound of historical superstition and religious persecution, with tokens of insanity or mental weakness and simplicity on the one hand, and of knavery and imposture on the other. The modern witch was an outcome of superstition, credulity, and ignorance on the part of individuals in relation to each other, this credulity not being consolidated and having no legal or ecclesiastical sanction. According to popular belief, there were three sorts of witches — the black witch, who could hurt but not help; the white witch, who could help but not hurt, but who was, nevertheless, credited with a strong hungering after mischief; and the grey witch, who could in turn help or do harm to those above her. The essayist then entered upon an exhaustive description of the mediaeval witch and her evil ways. He remarked, in passing, that Hampshire did not seem to have been very prolific in witches. King James, who was a great authority on witchcraft, had computed that the proportion of wizards to witches was one to twenty. How this came about was that the devil had trade such progress with Eve in the olden times that he had been very friendly with the ladies ever since. (Laughter.) Although many hundreds of persons were burnt in England as witches before the year 1552, it was not till then that witchcraft was declared to be a crime punishable by death. It was estimated that the judicial murders for withcraft in England in 200 years numbered 30,000, and this total was more than doubled by those who were done to death without trial. In Scotland it was even worse. The belief in witchcraft was still general in England in 1660, but the destruction of the old notions was very rapid after that time, and in 1736 the laws against witchcraft were repealed. Notwithstanding the tremendous advances made during the last 150 years in physical science and the education of the people, it was an undoubted fact that the belief in witchcraft still existed in the present day in remote country districts. Owing to want of time, Dr. Nicholson had to omit that part of his paper which dealt with witchcraft in the light of science and education, but he counselled his hearers against dwelling too much upon the supernatural, which, within his own experience, had been the wreck of many an otherwise excellent intellect.

The CHAIRMAN, initiating a discussion on the admirable paper, said he had expected to hear something about Mother Shipton, whose prophecy to the end of the world in 1881 caused much perturbation in that year; indeed, although he did not quite know what to think about it himself, he was very glad when the year was over. (Laughter). — Dr. CONAN DOYLE (Hon. Sec.) proposed a vote of thanks to Dr. Nicholson. He thought that where there trues a, widespread belief among many nations, extending over long intervals, they would find some basis of truth if they only searched far enough. Modern science, far from having destroyed the original idea underlying this topic, had gone a long way to confirm it. The original idea in regard to witchcraft was that certain people possessed powers, he would not stay supernatural but preternatural, and as a secondary consideration those powers might be used for a malevolent purpose. In support of the truth of this idea he quoted the investigations of Charcot and other eminent continental scientists into the phenomena of mesmerism and clairvoyance. — Mr. H. S. MACLAUCHLAN seconded the motion. saying we were all superstitious more or less, and we would be rather dull and unimaginative creatures if we were not. He cited modern instances of the belief in witchcraft, which was very common in Scotland, in some parts of England, and in Southern Russia. — Mr. HARDINGHAM supported the resolution, and spoke of a ghostly sort of experience of his own years ago, in a bedroom of an hotel at Frankfort-on-the-Maine. — Dr. J. WARD COUSINS (Hon. Secretary) also supported the motion, and discountenanced the association of mesmerism and clairvoyance with what was called witchcraft. After all there were extraordinary phases of mental life which were being more or less scientifically examined, but beyond that the popular explanation of mesmerism and clairvoyance was absolute nonsense. The belief in witchcraft that existed in the middle ages had disappeared in proportion as science advanced; and that which might he relied upon to sweep away superstition from the human mind was what one might call those heaven-born truths which he believed the members of that Society would alone entertain. — Dr. NICHOLSON briefly replied to the vote of thanks, and the proceedings ended.