m one
who had attended the prisoners as their "spiritual comforter and
friend." It was a queer conclusion of his services of consolation and
pastoral offices, to proclaim to the crowd, that the truly Christian
expressions of the persons in his charge were all a diabolical sham. One
would have thought, if he accompanied them in the capacity alleged, he
would have dismounted before ascending the hill, and tenderly waited
upon them, side by side, holding them by the hand and sustaining them by
his arm, as they approached the fatal ladder; and that his last
benedictions, upon their departing souls, would have been in somewhat
different language. That language was entirely natural, however,
believing, as he did, that they were all guilty of the unpardonable sin,
in its blackest dye; that, obstinately refusing to confess, they were
reprobates, sunk far below the ordinary level of human crime, beyond the
pale of sympathy or prayer, enemies of God, in covenant with the Devil,
and firebrands of Hell. All this he believed. Of course, he could not
pray _with_, and could hardly be expected to pray _for_, them. The
language ascribed to him by Calef, expressed his honest convictions;
bears the stamp of credibility; was not denied or disavowed, then; and
cannot be discredited, now.

If those sufferers, wearing the resplendent aspect of faith,
forgiveness, and piety, in their dying hour, were, in reality, "the
Devil appearing as the Angel of Light," nobody but the Reviewer is to
blame for charging Mather with being his "spiritual adviser and
counsellor."

The Reviewer says that the horse Mather rode on that occasion, "has been
tramping through history, for nearly two centuries. It is time that he
be reined up." Not having been reined up by Mather, it is in vain for
the Reviewer to attempt it. Mazeppa, on his wild steed, was not more
powerless. The "man on horseback," described by Calef, will go tramping
on through all the centuries to come, as through the "nearly two
centuries" that have passed.

To discredit another part of the statement of Calef, the Reviewer cites
the _Description and History of Salem_, by the Rev. William Bentley, in
the Sixth Volume of the First Series of the _Massachusetts Historical
Collections_, printed in 1800, quoting the following passage: "It was
said that the bodies were not properly buried; but, upon an examination
of the ground, the graves were found of the usual depth, and remains of
the bodies, and