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                        AN ESSAY
                           ON
           DEMONOLOGY, GHOSTS AND APPARITIONS,
                           AND
                 POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS,
                          ALSO,
                       AN ACCOUNT
                         OF THE
              WITCHCRAFT DELUSION AT SALEM,
                        IN 1682.


            By JAMES THACHER, M. D., A. A. S.


  'With spells and charms I break the viper's jaw,
  Cleave solid rocks, oaks from their fissures draw,
  Whole woods remove, the airy mountains shake,
  Earth forced to groan, and ghosts from graves awake.'
                                     Ovid's Metamor.


  There are mysteries even in nature, which we cannot
  investigate, paradoxes which we can never resolve.


                         BOSTON:
                   CARTER AND HENDEE.
                      M DCCC XXXI.


     ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the
     year 1831, by CARTER & HENDEE, in the Clerk's
     Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.

                  BOSTON CLASSIC PRESS.
                      I. R. BUTTS.




ADVERTISEMENT.


The following pages were in substance composed to be read before the
Plymouth Lyceum, in 1829. When it was understood that Rev. CHARLES W.
UPHAM was about to favor the public with a work on the same subject,
it was determined that this little performance should be suppressed.
The