You complain of a great many defects [in yourself] and that complaint is the highest recommendation I could desire to make me love and esteem you and desire your friendship. And if I were now setting out in the World, I should think it my great happiness to have such a companion as you, who had a true relish of truth…and, if I mistake not, you have as much of it as I ever met with in anybody. The right and the necessity to inquire freely and fearlessly into all subjects, especially religion, is important to human testimony. The superstitions of peoples throughout the World and also the infinite numbers of pretenders to the divine revelation of freedom, with tongue in cheek created some thoughts. In the sixteenth century, a new Christian theory developed based on Christian theology, canon law, and philosophical ideas. This theory was that a witch had made a deliberate pact with the Devil—almost a form of a personal arrangement—but that witch did not act alone. The Christian witch theory demanded that more of these witches be found, and arrested and that black witchcraft be effectively ended. #RandolphHarris 1 of 9

The authorities of the time believed that even healing had to be a result of a pact with the Devil, so white witches were also persecuted. The arrest of one witch almost certainly led to more arrests, as torture was allowed to be used on suspects to find out the names of other witches. Freedom had exorcised the witches that so plagued James I and Charles I: Witchcraft was a criminal offence in Scotland prior to 1590 and great numbers of witches had almost annually executed in England, from the remotest antiquity to the late Revolution; when the liberty given, and take to thin freely, the Devil’s power visibly declined, and England as well as the United Provinces ceased to be any part of his Christian territories. All enemies of freethinking were branded crack-brained and enthusiastical, malicious, ambitious, inhumane, ignorant, or brutal—or courters of priests, women, and the mob. Three hundred witches had allegedly gathered to plot the murder of James. It is known that James had a morbid fear of violent death. Therefore, these trials were of especial interest to him, and he suddenly developed a very keen interest in demonology and witch craft. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9

Evidence for these crimes seemed outlandish. Witches were accused of attempting to drown James by calling up a storm while he was at sea with his new wife. Other charges included trying to kill James by melting a wax effigy of him. They were also accused of performing perverted rituals in a church in Berwick—though it is not clear that this had to do specifically with trying to kill the king. However, when James became king is 1603, he claimed that he never had been responsible for hunting and killing the witches. Yet, evidence suggests differently. In 1591, King James showed a particular interest in the trial of Mary Napier—she was arrested for consulting a witch and linked to treasonable activity. Mary Napier claimed to be pregnant at the time of her arrest. James wrote a court order to find out if Mary was pregnant and if she was not she was to be burned. Mary Napier was also a friend of Earl Bothwell’s and legend has it that James was willing to use witchcraft for political ends. Nonetheless, the court acquitted Mary Napier—much to the anger of James. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9

While the witches were accused of classic witchcraft, the main issues as far as James was concerned was the plan to murder him—treason. The trials also had a major political aspect as there was an attempt to incriminate Earl Bothwell in the proceedings. One theory put forward is that the whole story was a plot made up by those nobles in Scotland who wanted to devalue the standing of Earl Bothwell within Scotland—and expand theirs. In 1597, James felt sufficiently knowledgeable about witchcraft that he wrote “Daemonologie.” The book dealt with intellectual topics such as magic, sorcery, witchcraft, spirits, and ghost. There were 25 witchcraft trials a year from 1603 to 1625, nearly 450 total. Half of the witches accused were found guilty and executed. As society became more civilized and ancient texts were examined scholarly and in a critical manner, the discourse concluded with a refutation of the standard objections to freethinking. Atheism is not, after all, the worst of all evils; enthusiasm and superstition hold that title. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9

The connection between morality and theoretical science, namely, that theoretical science reflects moral practice. King James was really quick to distance himself as an expert of witches, ghost, and demons because England was viewed as more civilized of a society, where intellectual discussed issues of a philosophical nature—but that did not included witchcraft. For James, any association with the topic was seen as potential embarrassment. The classical conception of politics is to bring humans out a state of nature into a state of civil society. Essentially, political life is a process in which nonsocial community (i.e., the state of nature) is transformed into a social one. This cannot happen unless the rulers understand that social life is a life in which people freely engage in joint enterprises. Civilization is a process whereby a community undergoes a change from a condition of relative barbarity to one of civility. Barbarism is hostility to civilization; but although barbarous communities always strive to destroy civilized ones, in the long run the defeat of barbarism is certain. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9

The Bible, consequently, is not to be taken seriously when it portrays God in human terms; certain parts of the Bible are to be accepted, while others are to be rejected. When the Bible is thought to suggest that it is acceptable to murder or harm or to shun people who are good from society, this must be viewed as fraudulently when contrary to reason. The appeal to mystery and to things above reason simply will not do. The error detected was that what King James and others were doing was for speculative reasons, with no proof firmly established in reality, and it was alien to the mind of philosophers. Given any piece of evidence, more than one reconstruction can be made of the action of which it is a relic. However, each reconstruction, take together with other knowledge, will entail consequences different from those of its fellows. A given reconstruction is established if no consequence that can be drawn from it conflicts with the evidence and if every other reconstruction has some consequence that does conflict with it. If a historian cannot show that one reconstruction, and only one, can be reconciled with the evidence, one must suspend judgment. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9

To discover that an act took place includes discovering the thought expressed in the act; and discovering that thought explains the act. Why is one view of nature replaced by another? Natural science must come first in order that philosophy may have something to reflect on. Art is something preconceived. Works of art may be, and commonly are, also works of craft. However, what makes something a work of art and determines whether it is a good or bad one is not what makes it a work of craft. A work of art is an imaginative creation; the function of imagination is to raise what is preconscious (for instance, mere feeling) to consciousness by giving it definite form. Imagination and expression are identical. All expressions, in any medium, is linguistic; for any form by which the preconscious is raised to consciousness is linguistic. Language thus begins in the cradle. Children speak before they learn their mother tongues. The primitive language of the cradle has not yet officially been decoded, but we can get a sense of what infants and babies are singing and talking about; it must be enriched by intellectualizing it so that it can express thoughts as well as feelings. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9

An intellectualized language is one containing conceptual terms, and conceptual thinking is abstract. An intellectualized language does not cease to be expressive; rather its range of expressiveness is increased. Art is, therefore, not an activity cut off from, say, science. Every fresh linguistic utterance is imaginative and can be considered a work of art. There is poetry without prose, but no prose without poetry. And since it is the nature of art to be expressive, good art is successful expression. Bad art is the malperformance of the act of bringing preconscious thoughts and feelings to consciousness, a malperformance that misrepresents what is thought and felt. It can arise only in a corrupt consciousness. Critics can detect bad art, works of corrupt consciousness, by comparing them with successful works. Consciousness if a feeling and it belongs to a higher order. There is primitive consciousness, appetite, desire, free choice, and reason. One can become conscious of an act of consciousness by introspection or inner sense. All acts of consciousness are linguistic; mind is the child of language. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9

We are not here to work for God because we have chosen to do so, but because God has laid hold of us. Keep your soul steadfastly related to God, and remember that you are called not simply to conveys your testimony but also to preach the gospel. Every Christian must testify to the truth of God; there must be the loving grip of God’s hand on you. The fearful abounding at this time in this country, of these detestable slaves of the Devil, is weakening humanity and making them unfit, and making it abound in others, more than the ordinary course of nature would permit. And such like in all other particular sicknesses. However, I will pray thee to observe in all these places, where I reason upon the Devil’s power, which is the different ends and scopes, that God is the first cause, and the Devil as his instrument and second cause shoot at in all these actions of the Devil, (as Gods hang-man). For where the Devil’s intention in them is ever to perish, either the soul or the body, or both of the, that he is permitted to deal with: God by the contraries, draws every out the evil glory to himself, either by the wreck of the wicked in their injustice, or by the trial of the patient and amendment of the faithful, being waked up with that rod of correction.  #RandolphHarris 9 of 9

The Winchester Mystery House

Entombed within these walls are stories of the dead and the strange. Many have experienced for themselves the hauntingly beautiful Winchester Mystery House. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/