"I would not sleep in quiet were I not to tell you, that I am clearly of opinion that their guide is not the Judge of all the earth... The chief judge is very zealous in these proceedings, and says he is very clear that God directs him in the whole work... The prisoners at the bar had generally more sense, more understanding, more charity, than their accusers... These accusers are said to be afflicted, and it is true, doubtless: but what ails them? Is it in the mind, or in the body?"

Thomas Brattle, letter to a correspondent, 8 October 1692. Brattle was a Boston merchant, scientist and Fellow of the Royal Society. The letter was not published at the time but circulated among Boston's educated elite.