of this volume.  Its sombre and desolate appearance admits of little variety of delineation.  It is mostly a bare and naked ledge.  At the top of this cliff, on the southern brow of the eminence, the executions are supposed to have taken place.  The outline rises a little towards the north, but soon begins to fall off to the general level of the country.  From that direction only can the spot be easily reached.  It is hard to climb the western side, impossible to clamber up the southern face.  Settlement creeps down from the north, and has partially ascended the eastern acclivity, but can never reach the brink.  Scattered patches of soil are too thin to tempt cultivation, and the rock is too craggy and steep to allow occupation.  An active and flourishing manufacturing industry crowds up to its base; but a considerable surface at the top will for ever remain an open space.  It is, as it were, a platform raised high in air.

A magnificent panorama of ocean, island, headland, bay, river, town, field, and forest spreads out and around to view.  On a clear summer day, the picture can scarcely be surpassed.  Facing the sun and the sea, and the evidences of the love and bounty of Providence shining over the landscape, the last look of earth must have suggested to the sufferers a wide contrast between the mercy of the Creator and the wrath of his creatures.  They beheld the face of the blessed God shining upon them in his works, and they passed with renewed and assured faith into his more immediate presence.  The elevated rock, uplifted by the divine hand, will stand while the world stands, in bold relief, and can never be obscured by the encroachments of society or the structures of art,—­a fitting memorial of their constancy.

When, in some coming day, a sense of justice, appreciation of moral firmness, sympathy for suffering innocence, the diffusion of refined sensibility, a discriminating discernment of what is really worthy of commemoration among men, a rectified taste, a generous public spirit, and gratitude for the light that surrounds and protects us against error, folly, and fanaticism, shall demand the rearing of a suitable monument to the memory of those who in 1692 preferred death to a falsehood, the pedestal for the lofty column will be found ready, reared by the Creator on a foundation that can never be shaken while the globe endures, or worn away by the elements, man, or time—­the brow of Witch Hill.  On no other spot could such a tribute be more worthily bestowed, or more conspicuously displayed.

The effects of the delusion upon the country at large were very disastrous.  It cast its shadows over a broad surface, and they darkened the condition of generations.  The material interests of the people long felt its blight.  Breaking out at the opening of the season, it interrupted the planting and cultivating of the grounds.  It struck an entire summer out of one year, and broke in upon another.  The fields were neglected; fences, roads, barns, and even the