‘Candle in the Dark: Or, A Treatise Concerning the Nature of Witches & Witchcraft’ was written by the 17th century English physician and humanist Thomas Ady. Ady was the author of three skeptical books on witchcraft and witch hunting using the Bible as the source of arguments, as did those defending witch hunting. Candle in the Dark was his first and best known work, it was used unsuccessfully by George Burroughs, a previous minister of Salem Village, in his defense during the Salem witch trials in 1692. Ady’s book also contains one of the earliest references to the origin of the word hocus pocus.