Upham states (vol. ii. pp. 2 and 386) that "for a period embracing about two months they" (certain girls and women) "had been in the habit of meeting together, and spending the long winter evenings, _at Mr. Parris's house_, practicing the arts of fortune-telling, jugglery, and magic."
Drake says ("Annals of Witchcraft," p. 189) that "these females instituted frequent meetings, or got up, as it would now be styled, a club, which was called a circle. _How frequent they had these meetings is not stated_; but it was soon ascertained that they met to try projects, or to do or produce superhuman acts."
Fowler remarks, in Woodward's Series (vol. iii. pp. 204 and 205), that "Mary Warren, one of the most violent of the accusing girls, lived with John Proctor," who, "out of patience with the meetings of the girls composing this circle," &c. "It is at the meeting of this circle of eight girls, _for the purpose of practicing palmistry and fortune-telling_, that we discover the germ or the first origin of the delusion."
The position of each of these writers substantially is, that the accusing girls, at circle meetings which they held, qualified themselves for the parts they subsequently performed, wherein, Fowler says, "their whole course, as seen by their depositions, discloses much malignancy."
Upham has told us that these meetings were held "at Mr. Parris's house," and that they occurred within the space of "about two months ... during the winter of 1691 and 1692." Drake found no statement as to "how frequent they had these meetings," and Fowler finds in them "the germ ... of the delusion." We have found no mention at all of this circle in the more ancient records and accounts, and not one of the authors named makes mention of the source of his information. Those men, two of whom are our personal acquaintances and friends, would not state anything which they did not believe to be true. We therefore shall not gainsay their allegations. Still, we feel privileged to doubt whether their uncertain number of meetings during the short space of two winter months, held _at the minister's own house_, and under an eye as vigilant as that of Mr. Parris, could have furnished those girls with opportunity to learn very much in any arts whose practice would not receive the approbation of the Rev. Master of the house--not much could they there of themselves learn, at their few meetings in two months, of the anti-Christian arts of "palmistry ... and fortune-telling;" not much could they then and there accomplish in the way "of becoming," by their voluntary efforts, "experts in the wonders of necromancy, magic, and Spiritualism."