In other words, the daring and foresight, the refusal to rely on old methods and the rejection of old superstitions didn’t necessarily come from the quarter we tend to expect. As early as 1893, Matilda Joslyn Gage was explaining, “we have abundant proof that the so-called ‘witch’ was among the most profoundly scientific persons of the age.”104 Associating witches with the Devil indicated that they had reached beyond the realm to which men had tried to confine them, and were now impinging on male privileges.
