The Witches of Northamptonshire

What a Witch is, and the Antiquity

of Witchcraft.

To know things rightly and perfectly is to know their causes. A definition consists of those causes which give the whole essence essence: the fundamental nature or core identity of a thing and contain the perfect nature of the thing defined. Therefore, wherever that is found, a very clear light appears. If the definition is perfect, that light is much greater; though it may not be fully perfect, it still gives some good light.

For this reason, although I dare not say I can give a perfect definition in this matter—which is difficult to do even regarding well-known things, because the essential form is hard to find—yet I do give a definition which may at least give notice and make known the character of those persons of whom I am to speak. A witch is one who works by the Devil, or by some devilish or curious art curious art: occult, forbidden, or magical practices, either hurting or healing, revealing secret things, or foretelling things to come, which the Devil has devised to entangle and snare men's souls with toward damnation. The conjurer, the enchanter, the sorcerer, the diviner, and whatever other sort there is, are indeed encompassed within this circle. The Devil does (no doubt) deal in these through various sorts and various forms; but no man is able to show an essential difference between any one of them and the rest.