itement had indeed risen to such
a pitch that two dogs accused of witchcraft were put to death.

A certain degree of reaction, however, appeared to be taking place, and
the magistrates who had conducted the proceedings began to be alarmed,
and to have some doubts of the wisdom of their proceedings. Cotton
Mather was called upon by the governor to employ his pen in justifying
what had been done; and the result was, the book which stands first in
the present volume, "The Wonders of the Invisible World;" in which the
author gives an account of seven of the trials at Salem, compares the
doings of the witches in New England with those in other parts of the
world, and adds an elaborate dissertation on witchcraft in general. This
book was published at Boston, Massachusetts, in the month of October,
1692. Other circumstances, however, contributed to throw discredit on
the proceedings of the court, though the witch mania was at the same
time spreading throughout the whole colony. In this same month of
October, the wife of Mr. Hale, minister of Beverley, was accused,
although no person of sense and respectability had the slightest doubt
of her innocence; and her husband had been a zealous promoter of the
prosecutions. This accusation brought a new light on the mind of Mr.
Hale, who became convinced of the injustice in which he had been made an
accomplice; but the other ministers who took the lead in the proceedings
were less willing to believe in their own error; and equally convinced
of the innocence of Mrs. Hale, they raised a question of conscience,
whether the devil could not assume the shape of an innocent and pious
person, as well as of a wicked person, for the purpose of afflicting his
victims. The assistance of Increase Mather, the president or principal
of Harvard College, was now called in, and he published the book which
is also reprinted in the present volume: "A Further Account of the
Tryals of the New England Witches.... To which is added Cases of
Conscience concerning Witchcrafts and Evil Spirits personating Men." It
will be seen that the greater part of the "Cases of Conscience" is given
to the discussion of the question just alluded to, which Increase Mather
unhesitatingly decides in the affirmative. The scene of agitation was
now removed from Salem to Andover, where a great number of persons were
accused of witchcraft and thrown into prison, until a justice of the
peace named Bradstreet, to whom the accusers appl