"The hatred of her enemies, however, was not yet appeased. They determined in some, way to entrap her; They had clothed her in a female garb; they insidiously laid in her way the habiliments of a man. The fire, smothered in the bosom of the maid, revived at the sight; she was alone, she caught up the garments, and; one by one adjusted them to her person. Spies were set to watch for this even; they burst into her apartment. What she had done was construed into no less offence than that of a relapsed heretic. There was no more pardon for such confirmed delinquency. She was brought out to be burned alive; in the market place of Rouen, and she died embracing a crucifix, and in her last moments calling upon the name of Jesus. A few days more than twelve months had elapsed between the period of her first captivity and her execution."
The preceding history of Joan of Arc, is taken from "Godwin's Lives of the Necromancers." Reader! we see in this tragical account, the dreadful effects of human credulity. The unfortunate; Maid of Orleans, who so well deserved a monument for her patriotism, was thus cruelly put to death. Her hard fate fully shows how superstition fortifies the mind against compassion and the dictates of common sense. In that the of religious intolerance, whole nations, had caught this theological fever. Kings and Parliaments, Judges and Generals, from the highest to the lowest, were alike the subjects of that awful contagion. Justice was banished from the earth, and humanity had no existence. From whence proceeded this state of savage barbarism? The answer is presented to us in bold relief. It was the effects of human credulity. It was brought on by believing without examination; and, in the New Testament, faith is urged as the thing most pleasing to God, and unbelief as the greatest sin. The existence of the Devil, and his enmity, to God and man, being supported by the New Testament, to be guilty of forming a contract with the Prince of Darkness was considered a horrid crime. The origin of sorcery, (which consisted in holding a communion with beings from the fabulous world of spirits,) is lost in the night and darkness of antiquity, but all ancient-nations and people were believers in its reality.