assionate eloquence, and extravagant
painting, of its author, would have been lavished upon it; and we should
have had another separate Book, with a Hebrew, Greek, or Latin motto or
title, which, interpreted, would read _Most Wonderful of Wonders_. In
1692, his language was: "Witchcraft is a business that will not be
shammed." In 1700, it was shoved off upon the memory of Mr. Hale, as a
business not safe for him, Mather, to meddle with, any longer. It was
dropped, as if it burned his fingers.

XV.

HISTORY OF OPINION AS TO COTTON MATHER'S CONNECTION WITH SALEM
WITCHCRAFT. THOMAS BRATTLE. THE PEOPLE OF SALEM VILLAGE. JOHN HALL. JOHN
HIGGINSON. MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH.

Such passages as the following are found in the article of the _North
American Review_: "These views, respecting Mr. Mather's connection with
the Salem Trials, are to be found in no publication of a date prior to
1831, when Mr. Upham's _Lectures_ were published." "These charges have
been repented by Mr. Quincy, in his _History of Harvard University_, by
Mr. Peabody, in his _Life of Cotton Mather_, by Mr. Bancroft, and by
nearly all historical writers, since that date." "An examination of the
historical text-books, used in our schools, will show when these ideas
originated."

The position taken by the Reviewer, let it be noticed, is, that the idea
of Cotton Mather's taking a leading part in the witchcraft prosecutions
of 1692, "_originated_" with me, in a work printed in 1831; and that I
have given "the cue" to all subsequent writers on the subject. Now what
are the facts?

Cotton Mather himself is a witness that the idea was entertained at the
time. In his Diary, after endeavoring to explain away the admitted fact
that he was the eulogist and champion of the Judges, while the Trials
were pending, he says: "Merely, as far as I can learn, for this reason,
the mad people through the country, under a fascination on their spirits
equal to that which energumens had on their bodies, reviled me as if I
had been the doer of all the hard things that were done in the
prosecution of the witchcraft." He repeats the complaint, over and over
again, in various forms and different writings. Indeed, it could not
have been otherwise, than that such should have been the popular
impression and conviction.

He was, at that time, bringing before the people, most conspicuously,
the _second_ and _eighth_ Articles of the _Ministers' Advice_, urging
on the prosecutions.