times, by her discourse, she was a woman of affliction, and mourning for sin in herself and others; and, when she met with any affliction, she seemed to justify God and say that it was all better than she deserved, though it was by false accusations from men.  She used to bless God that she got good by affliction; for it made her examine her own heart.  We never heard her revile any person that hath accused her with witchcraft, but pitied them, and said, ’I pray God forgive them; for they harm themselves more than me.  Though I am a great sinner, I am clear of that; and such kind of affliction doth but set me to examining my own heart, and I find God wonderfully supporting me and comforting me by his word and promises.’”

Joseph Knowlton and his wife Mary, who had lived near her, and sometimes in the same family with her, testified, that, having heard the stories told about her, they were led to—­

“take special notice of her life and conversation ever since.  And I have asked her if she could freely forgive them that raised such reports of her.  She told me yes, with all her heart, desiring that God would give her a heart to be more humble under such a providence; and, further, she said she was willing to do any good she could to those who had done unneighborly by her.  Also this I have taken notice, that she would deny herself to do a neighbor a good turn.”

The father of her husband,—­James How, Sr., aged about ninety-four years,—­in a communication addressed to the Court, declared that—­

“he, living by her for about thirty years, hath taken notice that she hath carried it well becoming her place, as a daughter, as a wife, in all relations, setting aside human infirmities, as becometh a Christian; with respect to myself as a father, very dutifully; and as a wife to my son, very careful, loving, obedient, and kind,—­considering his want of eyesight, tenderly leading him about by the hand.  Desiring God may guide your honors, ...  I rest yours to serve.”

The only evidence against this good woman—­beyond the outcries and fits of the “afflicted children,” enacted in their usual skilful and artful style—­consisted of the most wretched gossip ever circulated in an ignorant and benighted community.  It came from people in the back settlements of Ipswich and Topsfield, and disclosed a depth of absurd and brutal superstition, which it is difficult to believe ever existed in New England.  So far as those living in secluded and remote localities are regarded, this was the most benighted period of our history.  Except where, as in Salem Village, special circumstances had kept up the general intelligence, there was much darkness on the popular mind.  The education that came over with the first emigrants from the mother-country had gone with them to their graves.  The system of common schools had not begun to produce its fruit in the thinly peopled outer settlements.  There is no more disgraceful page in our annals than that which details the testimony given at the trial, and records the conviction and execution, of Elizabeth How.