of tracts or books to which _Cases of Conscience_ belongs, copies
of which can hardly be found, and not likely to justify a separate
re-publication. It has, indeed, not many years ago, been reprinted in
England, in a series of _Old Authors_, tacked on to the _Wonders of the
Invisible World_. But few copies have reached this country; and only
persons of peculiar, it may almost be said, eccentric, tastes, would
care to procure it. It will be impossible to awaken an interest in the
general reading public for such works. They are forbidding in their
matter, unintelligible in their style, obscure in their import and
drift, and pervaded by superstitions and absurdities that have happily
passed away, never, it is to be hoped, again to enter the realm of
theology, philosophy, or popular belief; and will perish by the hand of
time, and sink into oblivion. If this present discussion had not arisen,
and the "_Advice_, entire," had not been given by Hutchinson, the
_suppressio veri_, perpetrated by Cotton Mather, would, perhaps, have
become permanent history.

In reference to the _Advice of the Ministers_, the Reviewer, in one part
of his article, seems to complain thus: "Mr. Upham has never seen fit to
print this paper;" in other parts, he assails me from the opposite
direction, and in a manner too serious, in the character of the assault,
to be passed over. In my book, (_ii., 267_) I thus speak of the _Advice
of the Ministers_, referring to it, in a note to p. 367, in similar
terms: "The response of the reverend gentlemen, while urging in general
terms the importance of caution and circumspection in the methods of
examination, decidedly and earnestly recommended that the proceedings
should be vigorously carried on."

It is a summary, in general and brief terms, _in my own language_, of
the _import_ of the whole document, covering both sets of its articles.
Hutchinson condenses it in similar terms, as do Calef and Douglas. I
repeat, and beg it to be marked, that I do _not quote it_, in _whole_ or
_in part_, but only give its import in my own words. I claim the
judgment of the reader, whether I do not give the import of the articles
Mather printed in the _Life of Phips_--those pretending to urge
caution--as fairly as of the articles he omitted, applauding the Court,
and encouraging it to go on.

Now, this writer in the _North American Review_ represents to the
readers of that journal and to the public, that I have _quoted_ the
_