ia. Whatever be the pedantry and
vanity of its author, he is undeniably worthy of rank among the men whom
he chronicled. Indeed, the Mathers, father and son, illustrated a race
of rare moral and intellectual power. The first of these, who enjoyed
the profitable name of 'Increase,' was equally popular and successful as
president of Harvard or pastor of the church of Cambridge, and the son
takes little pains to conceal his filial pride as he blazons the virtues
of 'Crescentius Madderus.' He is particular in recording him as the
first American divine who received the honorary title D.D. As one looks
back upon the primitive days of the nascent university, he is struck by
the contrast between the present numerous and stately array of halls,
the magnificent library, and all the pomp of a modern commencement, and
the slender procession of rudely clad youth led by Increase Mather. As
they marched out of the old shaky college and filed into the antique
meeting-house, what would they have said to a glimpse of Gore Hall and
its surroundings? But those were the beginnings of greatness, simple as
they were.

The pages of the Magnalia are filled with portraits hit off in a
masterly style. Mather was a true 'Porte Crayon,' and knew how to bring
out salient points with a few happy touches. His picture-gallery is like
an ancient Valhalla, full of demigods. Among their characteristics are
strong contrasts. Here are piety and poverty and learning, hand in hand.
These men, as we have stated, could swing the axe, or chop logic, at a
moment's notice; could pull vegetables, or dig out Hebrew roots, with
alternate ease. Notwithstanding their long days of labor, their minds
kept their edge, being freshly set by incessant doctrinal disputations.
Such, indeed, was the public appetite for controversy that polemic
warfare never slumbered. Our view of their character is assisted by a
contrast with the English clergy of the same day, and which reveals
shameful deformities on the part of the latter--avarice, indolence, and
gluttony. Of such, Milton spake in Lycidas, with withering contempt, as
those who

'for their bellies' sake
Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold.'

If the Puritan poet be charged with prejudice, we have only to turn to
the pages of Macaulay for confirmation. Where, indeed, if this be true,
did Fielding obtain the originals for the ordinary at Newgate, or
'parson Trulliber' in Joseph Andrews?

Sad and strange was th