ABSTRACT
"Nature makes them Sorceresses", – the genius peculiar to woman and her temperament. She is born a creature of Enchantment. In Virtue of regularly recurring periods of exaltation, she is a Sibyl; in virtue of love, a Magician. By the fineness of her intuitions, the cunning of her wiles – often fantastic, often beneficent – she is a Witch, and casts spells, at least and lowest lulls pain to sleep and softens the blow of calamity. A strong and bright and vigorous religion, such as was Greek Paganism, begins with the Sibyl, to end with the Sorceress. The first, a virgin fair and beautiful, brilliant in the full blaze of dawn, cradled it, gave it its charm and glamour. In later days, when sick and fallen, in the gloom of the Dark Ages, on heaths and in forests, it was concealed and protected by the Sorceress; her dauntless pity fed its needs and kept it still alive.
