Solomon's Secret Arts (79 page)

106.
[Christopher Walton],
Notes and Materials for an Adequate Biography of the Celebrated Divine and Theosopher, William Law
(London, 1854), pp. 192, 199–205. The copy in the Bodleian Library, call mark 210.a238, is a presentation copy with Walton's original notes.

107.
Jane Lead,
A Fountain of Gardens
(2 vols, London, 1697–8), vol. 1, pp. 17–18.

108.
[Francis Lee], “A Letter of Resolution,” in Lead,
Fountain of Gardens
, vol. 1, p. 504.

109.
Bodl. Lib., Ms. Rawl. D.832, ff. 62–7.

110.
Bodl. Lib., Ms Rawl. D.833, ff. 27–8, 92.

111.
Bodl. Lib., Ms. Rawl. D.1152, f. 5.

112.
“Letters from Dr. Ja. Garden … to Mr. J. Aubrey,” in Michael Hunter, ed.,
The Occult Laboratory: Magic, Science and Second Sight in Late 17th-Century Scotland
(Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2001), p. 143; G.D. Henderson, ed.,
Mystics of the North-East
(Aberdeen, 1934), pp. 59, 61–5. Lee's link to the Aberdeen mystics was through the London physician James Keith.

113.
Robert Kirk, “The Secret Commonwealth” (1692), in Hunter, ed.,
The Occult Laboratory
, p. 106; also, Lizanne Henderson and Edward J. Cowan,
Scottish Fairy Belief: A History
(Edinburgh, 2001), ch. 6. A more conventional treatment of second sight can be found in a pamphlet by the Episcopal minister John Frazer, entitled ΔEYTEPOΣKOΠIA
[Deutoroskipia] or, A Brief Discourse Concerning the Second Sight, Commonly So Called
(Edinburgh, 1707), which appears in Hunter, ed.,
The Occult Laboratory
, pp. 187–204.

114.
Kirk, “Secret Commonwealth,” in Hunter, ed.,
Occult Laboratory
, pp. 79, 82.

115.
J. Kent Clark,
Goodwin Wharton
(Oxford, 1984), pp. 30–1, 218–326.

116.
Kirk, “Secret Commonwealth,” in Hunter, ed.,
Occult Laboratory
, p. 86; “Letters from Garden to Aubrey,” in
ibid.
, p. 143.

117.
See Carlo Ginzburg,
The Night Battles
(Baltimore, 1995).

118.
The Athenian Mercury
, vol. 3, no. 10, 29 Aug. 1691.

119.
Alexander Pope, “The Rape of the Lock,” in Aubrey Williams, ed.,
Poetry and Prose of Alexander Pope
(Boston, 1969), p. 79.

120.
Ibid.
, canto 1, 1l. 37, 71; canto 3, 1l. 35–6, 152.

121.
The best general explanation of the decline of witch beliefs is James Sharpe,
Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early Modern England
(Philadelphia, 1996), chs 9–11; but see also Bostridge,
Witchcraft and its Transformations
, ch. 6, to which the following discussion is heavily indebted.

122.
A Relation of the Diabolical Practices of the Witches of the Sheriffdom of Renfrew
(London, 1697); Michael Wasser, “The Western Witch-Hunt of 1697–1700: The Last Major Witch-Hunt in Scotland,” in Julian Goodare, ed.,
The Scottish Witch-Hunt in Context
(Manchester, 2002), pp. 146–65. For Dumfries and Galloway, see Lizanne Henderson, “The Survival of Witch Prosecutions and Witch-Beliefs in South-West Scotland,”
Scottish Historical Review
, 85, 1 (2006), pp. 52–74.

123.
A Full and True Relation of the Witches at Pittenweem
(Edinburgh, 1704). One pamphlet writer decried the “horrible Murder committed in
Pittenweem
” and denounced the chief witness as “a Cheat”:
An Answer of a Letter from a Gentleman in Fife, to a Nobleman, Containing a Brief Account of the Barbarous and Illegal Treatment, These Poor Women Accused of Witchcraft, Met With from the Baillies of Pittenweem and Others, with Some Few Observations Thereon
([Edinburgh?], 1705). He was answered in
A Just Reproof, to the False Reports, Bold, & Unjust Calumnies, Dropt in Two Late Pamphlets
(Edinburgh, 1705), a pamphlet that defended the magistrates and blamed the murder (p. 13) on the presence of “a great many Strangers, some
Englishmen
, some from
Orkney
.” See also Stuart Macdonald, “In Search of the Devil in Fife Witchcraft cases, 1560–1705,” in Goodare, ed.,
Scottish Witch-Hunt
, p. 44.

124.
“A Lover of the Truth,”
Witch-Craft Proven, Arreign'd and Condemn'd in its Professors, Professions and Marks, by Diverse Pungent, and Convincing Arguments
(Glasgow, 1697); [John Bell],
Tryal of Witchcraft, or, Witchcraft Arraign'd and Condemn'd
(Glasgow, 1705). Only one copy of the second pamphlet now exists, in the Scottish National Library. It is summarized in Christina Larner, “Two Late Scottish Witchcraft Tracts:
Witch-craft Proven
and
The Tryal of Witchcraft
,” in Sidney Anglo, ed.,
The Damned Art: Essays in the Literature of Witchcraft
(London, 1977), pp. 227–45.

125.
Ralph Davis,
An Account of the Tryals, Examination and Condemnation of Elinor Shaw, and Mary Philip's (Two Notorious Witches), at Northampton Assizes, on Wednesday the 7th of March 1705 for Bewitching a Woman, and Two Children, Tormenting them in a Sad and Lamentable Manner till they Dyed
(London, 1705); Ralph Davis,
The Northamptonshire Witches
(London, 1705);
A Full and True Account of the Tryal, Examination and Condemnation of Mary Johnson a Witch
(London, 1706);
The Whole Trial and Examination of Mrs. Mary Hicks and her Daughter Elizabeth, But of Nine Years of Age, Who Were Condemn'd the Last Assizes Held at Huntington for Witchcraft; and there Executed on Saturday the 28th of July 1716
(London, [1716]). That the first two pamphlets and the last were written by the same author, and that they did not refer to real incidents, were demonstrated in Wallace Notestein,
A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718
(Washington, 1911), pp. 375–83. Notestein also pointed out their similarities to an earlier pamphlet describing a fictitious witchcraft case at Worcester in 1645.

126.
Balthasar Bekker,
The World Bewitch'd; or, An Examination of the Common Opinions Concerning Spirits … Vol. 1
(London, 1695). See also Andrew Fix,
Fallen Angels: Balthasar Bekker, Spirit Belief and Confessionalism in the Seventeenth Century Dutch Republic
(Dordrecht, 1999).

127.
John Beaumont,
An Historical, Physiological and Theological Treatise of Spirits, Apparitions, Witchcrafts and Other Magical Practices
(London, 1705), p. 347.

128.
Ibid.
, p. 328.

129.
See Margaret C. Jacobs,
The Newtonians and the English Revolution, 1689–1720
(Ithaca, N.Y., 1978).

130.
A reiteration of this view can be found in
The Black Art Detected and Expos'd: or, A Demonstration of the Hellish Impiety, of Being, or Desiring to Be a Wizzard, Conjurer or Witch
(London, 1707).

131.
[Joseph Addison],
The Spectator
, vol. 2, no. 117, 14 July 1711, p. 186.

132.
Arthur Wellesley Secord, ed.,
Defoe's Review, Reproduced from the Original Editions
(9 vols in 22 books, New York, 1965), vol. 8 (book 20), no. 90, 20 Oct. 1711, pp. 361–4.

133.
[Addison],
Spectator
, no. 117, vol. 2, p. 189.

134.
Phyllis J. Guskin, “The Context of Witchcraft,”
Eighteenth-Century Studies
, 15, 1 (1981), pp. 48–71; Victoria County History,
A History of the County of Hertford: Volume 3
(London, 1912), pp. 151–8.

135.
For this interpretation of witchcraft, see Deborah Willis,
Malevolent Nurture: Witch-Hunting and Maternal Power in Early Modern England
(Ithaca, N.Y., 1995), as well as Lyndal Roper,
The Witch-Craze
(New Haven, Conn., 2008).

136.
[Francis Bragge, junior],
A Full and Impartial Account of the Discovery of Sorcery and Witchcraft, Practis'd by Jane Wenham of Walkerne in Hertfordshire
(2nd ed., London, 1712), preface, [p. iii].

137.
For Curll, see Paul Baines and Pat Rogers,
Edmund Curll, Bookseller
(Oxford, 2007). The second (anonymous) pamphlet by Bragge was
Witchcraft Farther Display'd
(London, 1712).

138.
The Impossibility of Witchcraft, Plainly Proving, from Scripture and Reason, That There Never Was a Witch, and That it Is Both Irrational and Impious to Believe There Ever Was
(London, 1712). For the
Protestant Post-Boy
, see Phyllis J. Guskin, “The ‘Protestant Post-Boy’ and ‘An Elegy on the Death of Pamphlets,’”
Notes and Queries
, 223 (Feb. 1978), pp. 40–1.

139.
The Impossibility of Witchcraft, Further Demonstrated
(London, 1712); Francis Bragge [junior],
A Defense of the Proceedings against Jane Wenham
(London, 1712); G.R.,
The Belief of Witchcraft Vindicated
(London, 1712).

140.
“A Physician in Hertfordshire,”
A Full Confutation of Witchcraft: More Particularly of the Depositions against Jane Wenham, Lately Condemned for a Witch; at Hertford
(London, 1712), pp. 3, 45, 48.

141.
[Henry Stebbing],
The Case of the Hertfordshire Witchcraft, Consider'd
(London, 1715), p. 12.

142.
On the politics of this period, see Geoffrey Holmes,
The Trial of Dr. Sacheverell
(London, 1973); Daniel Szechi,
Jacobitism and Tory Politics, 1710–14
(Edinburgh, 1984).

143.
His biography can be found in
ODNB
, and his role in the medical controversies of the late 1690s is discussed in Cook,
Trials of an Ordinary Doctor
, pp. 183–4.

144.
[Richard Boulton],
A Compleat History of Magick, Sorcery, and Witchcraft
(2 vols, London, 1715–16), vol. 1, preface, sig. A
₃
.

145.
Ibid.
, pp. 5–6.

146.
Ibid.
, pp. 18–23.

147.
Bostridge,
Witchcraft and its Transformations
, pp. 143–4.

148.
Francis Hutchinson,
An Historical Essay Concerning Witchcraft
(London, 1718), pp. vi, xiv.

149.
Ibid.
, p. 133.

150.
Richard Boulton,
The Possibility and Reality of Magick, Sorcery, and Witchcraft, Demonstrated. Or, a Vindication of a Compleat History of Magick, Sorcery, and Witchcraft
(London, 1722), pp. xii–xiii.

Chapter Five: The Newtonian Magi

1.
The best discussion of Newton's followers is found in Larry Stewart,
The Rise of Public Science: Rhetoric, Technology and Natural Philosophy in Newtonian Britain, 1660–1750
(Cambridge, 1992). For the impact of science on religion, see Margaret Jacob,
The Newtonians and the English Revolution, 1689–1720
(Ithaca, N.Y., 1976). Stewart and Jacob have cowritten a general examination of Newton's cultural significance entitled
Practical Matter: Newton's Science in the Service of Technology and Empire, 1687–1851
(Cambridge, Mass., 2004).

2.
For the criticism of “wonders” by the Newtonians Edmond Halley and William Whiston, see William E. Burns,
An Age of Wonders: Prodigies, Politics and Providence in England 1657–1727
(Manchester, 2002), pp. 160–3, 166–70. Whiston later reversed his views, as will be seen. John Flamsteed, a reluctant collaborator of Newton, disliked astrology but was open-minded on the subject of ghosts: Sasha Handley,
Visions of an Unseen World: Ghost Beliefs and Ghost Stories in Eighteenth-Century England
(London, 2007), ch. 3.

3.
Jean-Théophile Desaguliers,
The Newtonian System of the World, the Best Model of Government
, in Pierre Boutin,
Jean-Théophile Desaguliers: Un Huguenot, Philosophe et Juriste, en Politique
(Paris, 1999), pp. 229–33, ll. 121, 123, 153–5, 175.

4.
New College, Oxford, Ms. 361(2), f. 133,
M&P
, reel 24, cited in Frank E. Manuel,
Isaac Newton, Historian
(Harvard, 1963), p. 149.

5.
Royal Society, Ms. LXIX.a.2, William Stukeley, “Memoirs of Sr. Isaac Newton's Life 1752,” p. 131, f. 57 (accessed at
http://ttp.royalsociety.org
).

6.
Ibid.
, p. 151, f. 67.

7.
Newton to Locke, 14 Nov. 1690, in H.W. Turnbull et al, eds,
The Correspondence of Isaac Newton
(7 vols, Cambridge, 1959–77), vol. 3, pp. 82–129. These letters were not published until 1754. The issue of heresy was by no means buried in Hanoverian England, although the charge against heretics that was usually brought in ecclesiastical courts was changed to “blasphemy.”

8.
Desaguliers, “Newtonian System,” in Boutin, pp. 221–2, 229, ll. 7, 19–20, 33, 127.

9.
Newton is called a “Pythagorean Magus” in Penelope Gouk,
Music, Science and Natural Magic in Seventeenth-Century England
(New Haven, 1999), ch. 7.

10.
Freemasons Hall Library (hereafter FHL), 1130 STU, Stukeley Mss., vol. 1, pp. 51–67.

11.
For sociability, see Peter Clark,
British Clubs and Societies, 1580–1800
(Oxford, 2000); for Freemasons, Margaret C. Jacob,
The Origins of Freemasonry: Facts and Fictions
(Philadelphia, 2006), and David Stevenson,
The Origins of Freemasonry
(Cambridge, 1988).

12.
Jonathan Swift,
Gulliver's Travels
, ed. Paul Turner (Oxford, 1971), pp. 149, 154–5, 158–9.

13.
Ibid.
, p. 169.

14.
Ibid.
, p. 190.

15.
Ibid.
, p. 206.

16.
The assertion that Swift was himself a Freemason rests mainly on the publication in 1724 of an anonymous pamphlet entitled
A Letter from the Grand Mistress of Free-Masons, to Mr. George Faulkner, Printer
. It is peppered with insider jokes aimed at other Masons. Swift is now acknowledged to have been the author.

17.
The indebtedness of this section to Richard S. Westfall,
Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton
(Cambridge, 1980), chs 12–17, as well as to Manuel,
Newton, Historian
and Frank Manuel,
The Religion of Isaac Newton
(Oxford, 1974), will be obvious to anyone who has read those works. Also of importance are the essays in James E. Force and Richard H. Popkin, eds,
Newton and Religion: Context, Nature and Influence
(Dordrecht, 1999).