h prepared and brought about the
establishment of New England. The second contains the lives of the first
governors and chief magistrates who presided over the country. The third
is devoted to the lives and labors of the evangelical ministers who,
during the same period, had the care of souls. In the fourth the author
relates the institution and progress of the University of Cambridge
(Massachusetts). In the fifth he describes the principles and the
discipline of the Church of New England. The sixth is taken up in
retracing certain facts, which, in the opinion of Mather, prove the
merciful interposition of Providence in behalf of the inhabitants of
New England. Lastly, in the seventh, the author gives an account of
the heresies and the troubles to which the Church of New England was
exposed. Cotton Mather was an evangelical minister who was born at
Boston, and passed his life there. His narratives are distinguished by
the same ardor and religious zeal which led to the foundation of the
colonies of New England. Traces of bad taste sometimes occur in his
manner of writing; but he interests, because he is full of enthusiasm.
He is often intolerant, still oftener credulous, but he never betrays
an intention to deceive. Sometimes his book contains fine passages, and
true and profound reflections, such as the following:--

"Before the arrival of the Puritans," says he (vol. i. chap. iv.),
"there were more than a few attempts of the English to people and
improve the parts of New England which were to the northward of New
Plymouth; but the designs of those attempts being aimed no higher
than the advancement of some worldly interests, a constant series of
disasters has confounded them, until there was a plantation erected upon
the nobler designs of Christianity: and that plantation though it
has had more adversaries than perhaps any one upon earth, yet, having
obtained help from God, it continues to this day." Mather occasionally
relieves the austerity of his descriptions with images full of tender
feeling: after having spoken of an English lady whose religious ardor
had brought her to America with her husband, and who soon after sank
under the fatigues and privations of exile, he adds, "As for her
virtuous husband, Isaac Johnson,

He tryed
To live without her, liked it not, and dyed."

[Footnote b: A folio edition of this work was published in London in
1702.]

Mather's work gives an admirable picture of the time