little regarded by its former possessor that several leaves of it were torn out; but the remainder gave me such a turn of thinking as to have an influence on my conduct through life; for I have always set a greater value on the character of a doer of good than any other kind of reputation, and if I have been, as you seem to think, a useful citizen, the public owes the advantage of it to that book.” He was systematic in his work, and over his study-door was the warning to all comers “Be short.” While he had considerably less to do with civil affairs than his father, yet it was his interposition, both oral and written, that saved Gov. Andros and his subalterns from being put to death by the people of Boston.
His literary life was perhaps more remarkable than that of any other American of his day. His prolific writing has been the cause of much diverse criticism. Dr. Charles Chauncy wrote: “In regard to literature, or an acquaintance with books of all kinds, I give the palm to Cotton Mather. No native of this country had read so much, or retained more of what he read. He was the greatest redeemer of time I ever knew. There were scarcely any books written but he had, somehow or other, got the sight of them. His own library was the largest, by far, of any private one on the continent. . . . He knew more of the history of this country than any man in it; and, could he have conveyed his knowledge with proportionate judgment, he would have given the best history of it.” His son Samuel writes: “In two or three minutes' turning through a volume he could easily tell whether it would add to his stock of ideas. If it would not, he quickly laid it by. If otherwise, passing over those parts which contained the things he had known before, he perused those only which contained what was new.” Of himself, Cotton Mather wrote: “I am able, with little study, to write in seven languages. I feast myself with the sweets of all the sciences which the more polite part of mankind ordinarily pretend to. I am entertained with all kinds of histories, ancient and modern. I am no stranger to the curiosities which, by all sorts of learning, are brought to the curious. These intellectual pleasures are far beyond any sensual ones.” Glasgow university gave him the degree of D. D. in 1710, and he was made a fellow of the Royal society in 1713, being the first American to receive this distinction. He had a very extensive correspondence with philosophers and literary men in all parts of the world and in various languages, but more especially with August Herman Francke, leader of the German Pietists and founder of the orphan house at Halle, for which he obtained many benefactions on both sides of the Atlantic. He also corresponded with Francke's pupils, and especially with those who became Danish missionaries at Tranque bar. He was an admirer of Father Jacques Bruyas, the French philologist, who prepared a dictionary and catechism for the Mohawk Indians; and at the very beginning of his “Magnalia” he quoted a short poem of Dominie Selyns, the Dutch pastor at New Amsterdam. And yet, in spite of a world-wide acquaintance, a cosmopolitan education, and most uncommon ability, his very best friends must concede that his judgment was ill-balanced, and that he was vain to the last degree.
He was active in the witchcraft persecutions. In
1685 he published “Memorable Providences
relating to Witchcraft and Possessions,” and, when
the children of John Goodwin became curiously
affected in 1688, he was one of the four ministers
of Boston who held a day of fasting and prayer,
and favored the suspicion of diabolical visitation.
He afterward took the eldest daughter to his house
in order to observe the phases of the phenomena.
When the first phenomena occurred at Salem in
1692, he at once became a prominent adviser
concerning them, and in order to convince all who
doubted the possessions and disapproved of the
executions, he wrote his “Wonders of the Invisible
World” (London, 1692). When the reaction in the
popular mind followed, he attempted to arrest it;
and though he afterward admitted that “there had
been a going too far in that affair,” he never
expressed regret, and charged the responsibility upon
the powers of darkness. His course in the matter
has been the subject of much criticism, some of it
unjust. The belief in witches had been world-wide
for hundreds of years before he was born;
thousands of such accused persons had been put to
death in Germany, France, and Spain, and
hundreds in England during the century before the
date of his birth; and later, during the years of
his youth, thousands of alleged witches were burned
in England under the judicial administrations of
Sir Matthew Hale and Chief-Justice Holt. It was
therefore not strange that an intensely spiritual
and trusting nature like that of Cotton Mather
fell in with a belief that was shared by many who
did not sympathize with him in other things.
Among those who believed in the reality of witches
were the president and fellows of Harvard, the
French and Dutch ministers of the province of
New York, and William Penn, in America, and
Richard Baxter and Isaac Watts in England. Even
so late as 1780 Sir William Blackstone declared a
similar belief. It must be admitted that he did
not rejoice at the earlier allegations; that he
advised the separation of the accused and the use of
milder measures; that when judicial proceedings
had been determined upon he opposed the admission
of the “spectral,” or any other, evidence resting
on the authority of the devil; that though he
protested to the judges against such evidence, yet
he did not in the end think it his duty to abuse
the judges in writing a history of the trials; and
that, with his associates, he saw the measure of the
delusion and ended it years before it was ended in
England. The Rev. Chandler Robbins, in his
history of the Second church, declares that he
approached the discussion of Cotton Mather's
character with much prejudice against him; but that
a full investigation of the whole subject, and a
due regard for
the times in
which he lived,
led him (Robbins)
to form a most
favorable opinion.
This analysis of
Cotton Mather's
character by
Robbins is the most
complete that has
ever been attempted.
Cotton Mather
is buried in
Copp's Hill
burying-ground, in the
older part of Boston.
(See illustration.)
The following
inscription is
on a slab:
“Reverend Drs. Increase, Cotton, and Samuel Mather
were interred in this vault. 'Tis the tomb of our
fathers, Mather's and Crocker's.” Several years ago
