tions and his unhappy passions, to what was
going on around him, were severed, nearly at the same time, by the death
of his father, in 1723, and of his great and successful rival, Leverett,
in 1724. Severe domestic trials and bereavements completed the work of
weaning him from the world; and it is stated that, in his very last
years, the resentments of his life were buried and the ties of broken
friendships restored. The pleasantest intercourse took place between him
and Benjamin Colman; men of all parties sought his company and listened
to the conversation, which was always one of his shining gifts; he had
written kindly about Dudley; and his end was as peaceful as his whole
life would have been, but for the malign influences I have endeavored to
describe, leading him to the errors and wrongs which, while faithful
history records them, men must regard with considerate candor, as God
will with infinite mercy.

It is a curious circumstance, that the two great public funerals, in
those early times, of which we have any particular accounts left, were
of the men who, in life, had been so bitterly opposed to each other.
When Leverett was buried, the cavalcade, official bodies, students, and
people, "were fain to proceed near as far as Hastings' before they
returned," so great was the length of the procession: the funeral of
Mather was attended by the greatest concourse that had ever been
witnessed in Boston.

XIX.

ROBERT CALEF'S WRITINGS AND CHARACTER.

I approach the close of this protracted discussion with what has been
purposely reserved. The article in the _North American Review_ rests,
throughout, upon a repudiation of the authority of Robert Calef. Its
writer says, "his faculties appear to us to have been of an inferior
order." "He had a very feeble conception of what credible testimony is."
"If he had not intentionally lied, he had a very imperfect appreciation
of truth." He speaks of "Calef's disqualifications as a witness." He
seeks to discredit him, by suggesting the idea that, in his original
movements against Mather, he was instigated by pre-existing
enmity--"Robert Calef, between whom and Mr. Mather a personal quarrel
existed." "His personal enemy, Calef."

There is no evidence of any difficulty, nor of any thing that can be
called "enmity," between these two persons, prior to their dealings with
each other, in the Margaret Rule case, commencing on the thirteenth of
September, 1693. Mather himself