登陆注册
5228800000112

第112章 VI(13)

Remember the theology and the diabology of the time. Mr. Cotton's Theocracy was a royal government, with the King of kings as its nominal head, but with an upper chamber of saints, and a tremendous opposition in the lower house; the leader of which may have been equalled, but cannot have been surpassed by any of our earth-born politicians. The demons were prowling round the houses every night, as the foxes were sneaking about the hen-roosts. The men of Gloucester fired whole flasks of gunpowder at devils disguised as Indians and Frenchmen.

How deeply the notion of miraculous interference with the course of nature was rooted, is shown by the tenacity of the superstition about earthquakes. We can hardly believe that our Professor Winthrop, father of the old judge and the "squire," whom many of us Cambridge people remember so well, had to defend himself against the learned and excellent Dr. Prince, of the Old South Church, for discussing their phenomena as if they belonged to the province of natural science:

Not for the sake of degrading the aspect of the noble men who founded our State, do I refer to their idle beliefs and painful delusions, but to show against what influences the common sense of the medical profession had to assert itself.

Think, then, of the blazing stars, that shook their horrid hair in the sky; the phantom ship, that brought its message direct from the other world; the story of the mouse and the snake at Watertown; of the mice and the prayer-book; of the snake in church; of the calf with two heads; and of the cabbage in the perfect form of a cutlash, --all which innocent occurrences were accepted or feared as alarming portents.

We can smile at these: but we cannot smile at the account of unhappy Mary Dyer's malformed offspring; or of Mrs. Hutchinson's domestic misfortune of similar character, in the story of which the physician, Dr. John Clark of Rhode Island, alone appears to advantage; or as we read the Rev. Samuel Willard's fifteen alarming pages about an unfortunate young woman suffering with hysteria. Or go a little deeper into tragedy, and see poor Dorothy Talby, mad as Ophelia, first admonished, then whipped; at last, taking her own little daughter's life; put on trial, and standing mute, threatened to be pressed to death, confessing, sentenced, praying to be beheaded; and none the less pitilessly swung from the fatal ladder.

The cooper's crazy wife--crazy in the belief that she has committed the unpardonable sin--tries to drown her child, to save it from misery; and the poor lunatic, who would be tenderly cared for to-day in a quiet asylum, is judged to be acting under the instigation of Satan himself." Yet, after all, what can we say, who put Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," full of nightmare dreams of horror, into all our children's hands; a story in which the awful image of the man in the cage might well turn the nursery where it is read into a madhouse?

The miserable delusion of witchcraft illustrates, in a still more impressive way, the false ideas which governed the supposed relation of men with the spiritual world. I have no doubt many physicians shared in these superstitions. Mr. Upham says they--that is, some of them--were in the habit of attributing their want of success to the fact, that an "evil hand" was on their patient. The temptation was strong, no doubt, when magistrates and ministers and all that followed their lead were contented with such an explanation. But how was it in Salem, according to Mr. Upham's own statement? Dr. John Swinnerton was, he says, for many years the principal physician of Salem. And he says, also, "The Swinnerton family were all along opposed to Mr. Parris, and kept remarkably clear from the witchcraft delusion." Dr. John Swinnerton--the same, by the way, whose memory is illuminated by a ray from the genius of Hawthorne--died the very year before the great witchcraft explosion took place. But who can doubt that it was from him that the family had learned to despise and to resist the base superstition; or that Bridget Bishop, whose house he rented, as Mr. Upham tells me, the first person hanged in the time of the delusion, would have found an efficient protector in her tenant, had he been living, to head the opposition of his family to the misguided clergymen and magistrates?

I cannot doubt that our early physicians brought with them many Old-

World medical superstitions, and I have no question that they were more or less involved in the prevailing errors of the community in which they lived. But, on the whole, their record is a clean one, so far as we can get at it; and where it is questionable we must remember that there must have been many little-educated persons among them; and that all must have felt, to some extent, the influence of those sincere and devoted but unsafe men, the physic-practising clergymen, who often used spiritual means as a substitute for temporal ones, who looked upon a hysteric patient as possessed by the devil, and treated a fractured skull by prayers and plasters, following the advice of a ruling elder in opposition to the unanimous opinion of seven surgeons."

To what results the union of the two professions was liable to lead, may be seen by the example of a learned and famous person, who has left on record the product of his labors in the double capacity of clergyman and physician.

I have had the privilege of examining a manuscript of Cotton Mather's relating to medicine, by the kindness of the librarian of the American Antiquarian Society, to which society it belongs. A brief notice of this curious document may prove not uninteresting.

同类推荐
  • 兵典

    兵典

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 上清辖落七元符

    上清辖落七元符

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • IN THE SOUTH SEAS

    IN THE SOUTH SEAS

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 石经考异

    石经考异

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 秘本种子金丹

    秘本种子金丹

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 首席的溺爱

    首席的溺爱

    (喜欢甜蜜暖文的姑凉们,一定要去戳栗子的新坑《噬心尖宠,蜜侯娇妻》哦,看书名就知道是宠文啦,收藏收藏哦,么么哒!)【他对她噬骨宠爱,但这宠爱的背后却暗藏阴谋…】他是LYS广告公司的老板凌彦深…她是他公司很有创意天赋的策划人顾萧…就在他们的恋情发展到谈婚论嫁之际,他却突然消失了,杳无音信…在她四处打听他的消息时,意外收到了一个匿名信封,看完里面的东西后,她冲动之下嫁给了自己不爱的男人,婚后的生活让她痛苦不已…一场车祸让她从2022年回到了2012年,她发誓这次一定要好好为自己活一次,然后向他问个明白,当年为何要背叛,离开她!不料却意外让她知道了当年那匿名信背后隐藏的秘密!“顾萧,没有我的允许,不许打掉这个孩子!”凌彦深着病chuang上脸色苍白的她,命令道。“孩子在我肚子里,生不生下来由我说了算!”她不堪示弱的反驳道。“哦?如果孩子没了,我会再让你怀上,直到你为我生下一个健康的宝宝为止!”“凌彦深,你这个大混蛋!”她和他和他,会展开一段怎样的纠葛?
  • 让身体不再荒凉

    让身体不再荒凉

    妈生下我的时候,我很丑,头发黄黄,又瘦又小。妈说:“这么丑的妮子,又这么小,能养活吗?给人家吧。”娘说“说什么傻话,恁不要俺要。”从此,我便有了娘。都说傻有傻福,丑有丑福,有了娘或许就是我福气的开始……
  • 恶魔小组(第1部)

    恶魔小组(第1部)

    俊锋、月玄、鹿川和西贡是四个性格迥异又各有所长的帅哥,自称“恶魔小组”。几个人,除了妹妹俊冰外,几乎都无一例外地叼着根烟,狂傲不羁地走在校园里。哥哥俊锋走在最前面,一头金黄的头发像是整个组织的旗帜一样高高后甩着,昂首走在前面引领着众人。妹妹俊冰就在他的右手边,眨着一双芭比娃娃的大眼睛。在横焰高中校园里,四人既是众多女生追逐的对象,又是众人所恐怖对象……
  • 重生娱乐圈:国民女神,轻点抱

    重生娱乐圈:国民女神,轻点抱

    重生归来,先虐贱男毒渣闺蜜,再把姐姐们嫁出去,最后,我们的口号是:扑倒部长大人读书需知:1.本书不会出现闺蜜抢男友的剧情2.女主绝对不会圣母3.女主做的事情,大部分都是为了扑小剧场:顾司穆看着面前脸色淡然的男人,一脸诚恳:“我们不一样。”古希琛看着他,深邃眼眸里带着疑惑不解,顾司穆:“你什么都有,而我只有女朋友。”古希琛:…… 此处划重点:女主是林清汀,小剧场只是男主在秀恩爱,古希琛不算女主,切记,切记,切记!
  • 盛世为凰:王爷的一等妻

    盛世为凰:王爷的一等妻

    “樾儿,你要记住,你这命中与宫楼玉阁相冲,切不可贪图不可贪念之物……”那年万盏花灯下,芝兰玉树的白衣少年极囊花灯放进她手里,指尖的温度带着不可挽回的力道,在她心里刻下了痕迹。“萧阙”,简简单单的两个字就像是这世间最厉害的毒咒,让她步步深陷,此生不能逃离:“不见子充,乃见狡童。”--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 网游之无限加血

    网游之无限加血

    王寻酷爱游戏,渴望自由,马上高考的他在一次翻墙外出玩游戏时被学校开除。在人生失去方向的时候被黑网吧老板拉入工作室,本以为从此步入打打游戏泡泡妹子过上幸福简单生活就够了的时候,没想到却幸运获得可以令他无限加血的法神之心,从此游戏人生被改变,谱写出一段可歌可泣的牧师传奇。
  • 哥哥好好说话

    哥哥好好说话

    重生而来,本想扮猪吃老虎,然后猪没有扮成,就被老虎吃了。微云阑,撇了撇嘴,把他的脸拿盖住,脸不见,心不烦。
  • 舌尖上的中国,笔尖下的美食

    舌尖上的中国,笔尖下的美食

    一部纪录片《舌尖上的中国》,以明丽饱满的画面、诗意流畅的叙述和人文感性的视角挑动了中国人舌尖上活跃的味蕾,也挑动了中国人基因里与食物根深蒂固的文化牵连。隐隐流动的,还有一个民族骨子里的文化自尊和自豪。中国人对美食的热情和骄傲,一直潜伏在中国文人的文字里。古时有李渔、袁枚,现代有梁实秋、周作人,当代有汪曾祺、赵珩……他们的文字,写出了“舌尖上的中国”一脉相承的形和魂,大可弥补《舌尖上的中国》未尽之处,而更有深情雅意。本期我们特将《舌尖上的中国》解说词,并文人老饕的美食文字各摘录一二,烩成一道文化味浓郁的大菜,以飨美食、美文兼爱的读者。
  • 毗尼日用切要

    毗尼日用切要

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 谁是你妈

    谁是你妈

    冰山男、腹黑男、温柔男、竹马男…统统Out啦!现在,会卖萌的超超级大帅哥才是王道!!O(∩_∩)O~当爱心爆棚的小护士被超爱卖萌的大帅哥黏上,一场抵抗与反抵抗的运动浩荡登场!帅哥不难拒绝,难以拒绝的是帅哥腹黑还会卖萌^-^如果你也遇上这么一位高富帅的极品,偏偏他还总是像萨摩耶狗狗一样,天天眨着一双水汪汪的大眼睛缠着你时,你投降还是不投降呢亲?O(∩_∩)O~情节虚构,切勿模仿