Saducismus Triumphatus: Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions

Dr. Henry More's Letter.

...on his shoulders, like someone justly burdened or charged with the crime of getting his kinswoman pregnant, as well as conspiring with Sharp to murder her.

Regarding the letter he mentions, written from the judge who presided over the trial to Sergeant Hutton, it is clear from Mr. Smart’s testimony that it was from Judge Davenport. This letter was likely a very full and precise original: "punctual" account of the whole matter, which enabled Mr. Webster to be more detailed in some significant areas than Mr. Lumley. However, the agreement between the accounts is so exact on the main points that there is no doubt about the truth of the apparition. But the claim that this was not the soul of Anne Walker, but her "astral spirit"—this is merely a fanciful idea of Webster and his followers, the Paracelsians Followers of the physician Paracelsus, who believed humans possessed a "sidereal" or star-born body distinct from the soul. I have sufficiently shown the folly of this in the scholarly notes original: "Scholia" of my Immortality of the Soul, Philosophical Volume original: "Volum. Philos.", Tome 2, Page 384.

I think you would do well to include this story of Anne Walker among the additions in the new printing original: "Impression" of your Demon of Tedworth. It is excellently documented and remains unexceptionable in every respect. I urge you to hurry that printing as fast as you can to enlighten the "half-witted" world. These people exult and triumph in extinguishing belief in that narrative, as if debunking the truth of the Demon of Tedworth Also known as the Drummer of Tedworth, a famous 1662 haunting case involving a rhythmic drumming sound were the same as actually slaying the Devil. They think they can now sing that mad, drunken song with more gaiety and security than ever:

Though mentioning this wild song might seem lighthearted, believe me, its application carries a sober and weighty meaning. Specifically original: "viz.", these types of people are horribly afraid that spirits might exist, because that would mean a Devil exists and an accounting must be made after this life. Therefore, they are impatient with anything that implies such things, so that they may indulge their own lusts and whims in this life with full freedom and security from any future judgment original: "after reckoning". I know from long experience that nothing rouses them out of the dull lethargy of atheism and Sadducism Sadducism: The denial of the existence of spirits or the resurrection, named after the ancient Jewish sect of Sadducees as much as stories of this kind. Even the most subtle and solid logical arguments for the existence of a non-physical spirit original: "thick and gross Spirit" have little effect on them. However, these types of observable experiences original: "sensible Experiments" cut and sting them deeply. They are so startled that even a far less significant story than this one about the Drummer of Tedworth or of Anne Walker, a Doctor of Medicine...