"1 acter of a very sober, virtuous woman.' The parents brought letters to Mr. Mather's church, of which the children subsequently became members. Thus far, it should seem that Cotton Mather's influence was entirely opposed to, rather than in favor of, any judicial proceedings in cases of witchcraft, or any other than the kindest treatment of those afflicted by the supposed satanic influence. Furthermore, his endeavor was manifestly not to extend, but to suppress this delusion, as appears especially in his refusal to divulge the names of those who had been implicated by the confession of the woman condemned for bewitching the Goodwin children. Cotton Mather's "Memorable Providences." After these Goodwin children had been recalled to a proper course of life, and rescued, as it was supposed, from the power of the devil by prayer, it is not strange that Cotton Mather, whose pen was ever ready for use in every cause that he considered as good, felt compelled to give to the world an account of this whole matter, which he deemed so manifest an exhibition of God's willingness to aid Christians in their opposition to all evil. It is not to be denied, of course, that he maintained to its fullest extent, in his "Memorable Providences," the reality of witchcraft; 2 which, too, all of his colleagues in the ministry, and indeed all Christians in New England, were in their own minds fully assured of.8 1 Hutchinson's History, Vol. ii. p. 26. "He says, after challenging all men to detect any false representations in it "from the egg to the apple": "I am resolved after this never to use but just one grain of patience with any man that shall go to impose upon me a denial of devils or of witches. I shall count that man ignorant who shall suspect [i.e. I suppose, those not guilty of complicity with the devil]; but I shall count him downright impudent if he asserts the non-existence of things which we have had such palpable convictions of." - p. 40 of the 1st ed., published in 1689, and reprinted in London, 1691. 8 The American edition was accompanied by a commendatory Preface by three other Boston ministers, as the English edition by one even laudatory by Richard Baxter. In his Prefatory Remarks he gives the key-note to the whole narrative: "Prayer is the powerful and effectual remedy against the malicious practices of devils and those who covenant with them." And in the conclusion he echoes the same sentiment: "Prayer and faith was the thing that drove the devils from the children." And he adds: "I am to bear this testimony unto the world—that the Lord is nigh to all them that call upon him in truth, and that blessed are all they that wait for him."1 Furthermore, it has been truly said that "a spirit of kindness and charity towards persons afflicted and accused pervades the volume from beginning to end." Thus it well corresponds to his whole action in the case. We should not forget, too, that this publication was made after English books of a similar nature had become numerous, and sanctioned by such men as the sage Sir Matthew Hale, and, indeed, it has been said, "constituted the light reading of the day." "It cannot be gainsaid, then, that there is nothing in his whole conduct in this case—literally nothing — which is unbecoming to his character for thoughtful, sympathetic, and gracious piety." " Initiatory Development of Witchcraft in the Family and Parish of Mr. Parris in Salem Village. There is not extant, it is believed, any evidence that the initiatory development of the Salem witchcraft, connected with the family of Rev. Mr. Parris in Salem Village, was in any way aided or abetted by Cotton Mather. That he was there in person, or had any personal intercourse or acquaintance with any of those concerned in it, is not pretended. But he is accused of fostering the delusion there by publishing his account of the Goodwin children in his "Memorable Providences." We have seen above the nature and spirit of that book, and if it was abused, the most that can be said is, 1 See Memorable Providences, p. 49, and Poole, North American Review, April 1869, p. 359. 2 Boston Daily Advertiser, April 9, 1870. See also Richard Baxter's opinion of this treatise, p. 479, above. that he erred in judgment where any other serious-minded man of his age, if situated as he was, and with his facility in writing, and if he had equal faith and desire to do good, would have done the same. The book, without doubt, met the approbation of leading minds in this country and in England.1 But; as a matter of fact, no persons who gave an account of these proceedings, and are relied upon as authority, mention the name of Cotton Mather in connection with them. Mr. Thomas Brattle, who wrote a letter, at the request of some clergyman not named, October 8, 1692,2 and was personally acquainted with the prominent actors, gives the names of other persons who incited and abetted, and those who utterly disapproved and denounced the proceedings; but he never, except incidentally, and that in a manner favorable to his innocence, mentions him. Governor Hutchinson, whose faithfulness and accuracy cannot be impeached, and who wrote with all the documents and records before him, many of which are now lost, does not allude to any agency, or connect the 1 That it was considered desirable and a duty to put on record the more wonderful and unusual dispensations of Divine Providence among men, such as "apparitions, possessions, and enchantments, is indicated variously in the history of the time; as for instance, in the request of the President and Fellows of Harvard College in 1694, to "the ministers throughout the land" to manifest their pious regards unto the work of the Lord and the operation of his hands," by taking care "to observe and record the more illustrious discoveries of Divine Providence in the government of the world." With the Mathers were associated Rev. Messrs. Allen, Willard, and Morton, and Mr. Brattle; two of them, (Willard and Brattle), the men, if not the only men, of any account, who wrote formal criticisms of the Salem trials soon after they took place; Mr. Brattle's Letter, elsewhere referred to, and Mr. Willard's "Some Miscellany Observations," published anonymously. This alone would be a sufficient refutation of the accusation that Cotton Mather rushed into the publication of such matters from an inordinate desire for notoriety. 2 This Letter, although written at this date, was entirely of a confidential nature, and was not published until several years afterward. He shrinks from the public judgment upon what he writes: "I should be very loath to bring myself into any snare by my freedom with you, and therefore hope that you will put the best construction on what I write, and secure me from such as would interpret my lines otherwise than they are designed." I suppose Mr. Thomas Brattle, F.R.S., Treasurer of Harvard College, to be the author of this Letter, as it is attributed to him in Mass. Hist. Coll. (1st Series, Vol. v.), and not to Mr. William Brattle, merchant of Boston, as is done by Mr. Upham. name of Cotton Mather in any way with these proceedings in Salem in the beginning of 1692.1 But further, the circumstances in which this most disastrous delusion appeared are not only sufficient to account for it; still more than this, they render it more than probable that the "Memorable Providences" had nothing to do with it at its first appearance, and too little influence afterward; as otherwise the results might have been more in accordance with those in the case of the Goodwin children. It cannot, it should seem, be doubted that the two Indian servants of Rev. Mr. Parris had great, though unintentional, influence in the first developments of the Salem witchcraft. A circle of young girls, eight or ten in number, including the daughter and niece of Mr. Parris, were accustomed, in the winter of 1691(2) to assemble in his house to practise 66 palmistry and other arts of fortune-telling, and of becoming experts in the wonders of necromancy, magic, and spiritualism." They were probably interested and incited to these things by the stories of the slaves John Indian and Tituba his wife in reference to the wonders performed by the necromancers of their own native tribes "in the Spanish West Indies and the adjacent mainlands of central South America," who also seem to have acted as teachers of these young girls in the performance of their tricks. This is rendered probable, among other things, by the fact, stated by Mr. Upham, that "persons conversant with the Indians of Mexico and on both sides of the isthmus, discern many similarities in their systems of demonology with ideas and practices developed here." 4 A proper watchfulness of the parents of these girls, and 1 In this emergency Gov. Hutchinson says: Several private fasts were kept at the minister's house, and several more public by the whole village, and then a general fast through the colony to seek God to rebuke Satan." "But the notice, and pity, and compassion " bestowed upon the children only "confirmed them" in their irregular courses.' See Hutchinson, Vol. ii. p. 25. 2 Other influences are enumerated by Mr. Upham, Vol. ii. p. 450, such as the spirit of the times, parish difficulties, characteristics of Mr. Parris. 3 See Upham, Vol. ii. p. 2 sq., where the particular individuals are spoken of especially of Mr. Parris over both servants and children, would have put a stop to these procedings. But they were allowed to go on until their experience and skill in tricks of legerdemain attracted "appreciating notice "; and after that, things went on from bad to worse. Their undisciplined minds began to lose the power or the willingness to distinguish between the imaginary and the real. Their bodies sympathized with the morbid state of their minds. "The trouble with these girls," Mr. Rice says, "arose with the long listening to stories which were bewildering, exciting, terrifying, and fascinating. These stories wrought upon their imagination, and their imagination upon their nerves. In a little time they were scarcely able, we may believe, to distinguish between what they imagined, and what they saw, heard, or felt. They grew to be excited, bewildered, bewitched. They were unnerved, unbalanced, unstrung, and in all things unlike healthy and sensible girls." 1 The physician was then called in. He gave it as his opinion that they were bewitched. Mr. Parris, too, and the whole community, in accordance with the spirit of the times, readily fell in with the result of his diagnosis. Whether these girls had any of the English works on witchcraft to guide them in all of these matters does not seem certain. One or more of these books was found in Mr. Parris's library; but it is not at all impossible, as has been suggested, that Mr. Parris, after the physician's decision that his children were bewitched, sent to Boston and got Perkins's "Art of Damnable Witchcraft," or some other similar book, to see if their symptoms were delineated therein. It seems, at least, quite certain that Cotton Mather's "Memorable Providences" had nothing to do with the early developments in Salem Village, since, as has been intimated, no mention is made of it in any of the proceedings of the occasion; and, furthermore, his method of dealing with the bewitched would have, it should seem, crept into some of 1 Rice's History of the First Parish in Danvers. Appendix, p. 251. |