capital offenders;" and declared the very excellent
sentiment, that "it becomes those of his profession to be very tender in
the shedding of blood." The expressions, "exceeding tenderness," in the
_fourth_ Section, and "the first inquiry," in the _fifth_--the latter
conveying the idea of repeated investigations with intervals of
time--were well adapted to gain his support of the whole instrument. If
they were led to concur in the _Advice_, by such inducements, they were
soon undeceived. "Unblemished reputation" was no protection; and the
proceedings at the trials were swift, summary, and conclusive.

It may be proper, at this point, to inquire what was meant by the
peculiar phraseology of the _third_, _fifth_, _seventh_, and latter part
of the _fourth_, Sections. It is difficult, writing as Cotton Mather
often did, and had great skill in doing, in what Calef calls "the
ambidexter" style, to ascertain his ideas. After the reaction had taken
effect in the public mind, and he was put upon the defensive, he had
much to say about some difference between him and the Judges. It clearly
had nothing to do with the "admission" of spectral evidence; for that
was the point on which the opinion of the Ministers was asked, and on
which he voluntarily proffered remarks in his letter to one of the
Judges, Richards. If he had been opposed to its "admission," nothing
would have been easier, safer, or more demanded by the truth and his own
honor, than for him to have said so. Indeed, his writings everywhere
show that he was almost a _one idea_ man, on the subject of spectres;
and, in some way or form, deemed their evidence indispensable and
reliable. He, evidently, had some favorite plan or scheme, as to the
method in which that kind of evidence was to be handled; and it was
because he could not get it carried into effect, and for this reason
alone, so far as we can discover, that he disapproved of the methods
actually pursued by the Court. He never disclosed his plan, but shrunk
from explaining it at length, "as too Icarian and presumptuous" a task
for him to undertake. Let us see if we can glean his ideas from his
writings.

I call attention, in the first place, to the following clause, in his
letter to Richards: "If, upon the bare supposal of a poor creature's
being represented by a spectre, too great a progress be made by the
authority, in ruining a poor neighbour so represented, it may be that a
door may be thereby opened for the De