He was only 23 when the Work was published, which is indeed an Apology for its crude Style of Composition.
26
Octavo, London, 1721. Printed for Emanuel Matthews, at the Bible in Pater-Noster-Row.
27
Appendix Touching Prodigies to his Convention Sermon of May 23, 1689.
28
Referring doubtless to New England Justified, published by the Author's Grandfather.
29
It would seem from this that Mr. Mather had been prosecuted, tried and sentenced to six Months' Imprisonment, but there appears no other Intimation of it.
30
Calef's More Wonders of the Invisible World is the Book asserted to have died long before its Author. However that might have been considered 30 Years after the More Wonders was printed, it is far from being Dead in this Age. Remarks will be more in Order when we come to introduce the Work.
31
It is rather surprising that the Author should speak doubtfully of the Case of this Family as to the Time of its Occurrence, when the Magnalia was at his Hand, giving Date and Details of the Affair. See that Work, B. vi, Page 71.
32
See History and Antiquities of Boston, 561-3.
33
Edmund Bohun was himself a Writer of considerable Note. The Work by which he is best known is probably that entitled The Character of Queen Elizabeth, a sizable Octavo, printed in 1693. His Writings are said to be Voluminous, yet but few of them are met with at this Day. One of the first Gazetteers was by him in a thick Octavo, 1688. He does not, however, call it a Gazetteer, but a Geographical Dictionary. His Descriptions compare singularly with those of the same Articles in Works of later Times: as for Example, he says Columbus discovered America in 1499. All the Notice Boston receives at his Hands is at the Close of an Article on Boston in Lincolnshire – "there is another Place in New England of the same Name." Under the Head of New England he gives it a much larger Notice; calls New England a Colony, "and they have built seven great Towns, the Chief of which is Boston, which in 1670, had fifty Sail of Ships belonging to it." He was Author of a Life of Bishop Jewell, and was living in 1700.
34
The only known Work of "Learned Scribonius" is that entitled De Compositione Medicamentorum Liber," the best Edition of which is said to be that of Padua, 1655, in 4to, with Notes by Rhodius. He was of Rome in the Time of Claudius. His Book is a Sort of Repository of Prescriptions, which Prescriptions were of about as much value, in a medical Point of View, as later ones were for determining what Persons were Witches. Nouveau Dict. Hist. a Lyon, 1804.
35
This Self Complacency is somewhat surprising, considering this Record was made while above an hundred poor Wretches were lying in the Jails of Boston and Salem!
36
The Author doubtless has Reference to the Dæmonology of James I. See Introduction.
