The Witchcraft in New England. Calef Robert

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СКАЧАТЬ required to convert the latter into the former has never been settled; nor can it be until all Minds are of the same Capacity. It requires a large Amount daily of Credulity to enable us to live in the tolerably good Opinion of our Companions in and out of Doors everywhere. Dismiss all of that liberal Sentiment from our Minds and we should be dismissed by the most of our Friends.

In the Reprints of some of the Works of Dr. Mather great Injustice has been done him, while, at the same Time, a Cheat has been put upon the Public. One Instance may be here given. In the Year 1815 there appeared a tolerably neat Edition of the Christian Philosopher,[27] in a Duodecimo of 324 Pages, printed at Charlestown, for which a Copyright appears to have been taken out. On a cursory Examination we can discover no Ground for copyrighting this Edition, except for making it unlike the Original in one Respect only, namely, Omission of Important Matter. As an Example of the Omissions the following may be taken: "We read of Heaven giving Snow like Wool. I have known it give a Snow of Wool. In a Town of New England, called Fairfield, in a bitter snowy Night, there fell a Quantity of Snow, which covered a large frozen Pond, but of such a woolen Consistence, that it can be called nothing but Wool. I have a Quantity of it, that has been these many Years lying by me."

      Now, in the Edition of 1815, this important Passage is entirely omitted! If Dr. Mather was imposed upon by some ignorant and mischievous Wight, that has nothing to do in excusing a Deception on the Part of a Publisher, who contracts to reprint a Work without any Reservation. If an Editor or Publisher thinks to save the Credit of his Author by falsifying his Text, he can only be sure of one Thing, and that is, to bring discredit upon himself.

I must here dismiss the Christian Philosopher; but in another Work by our Author, of an earlier Date,[28] there is a singular Story of Snow which may be noticed here: "It was credibly affirmed, that in the Winter of the Year 1688, there fell a Red Snow, which lay like Blood on a Spot of Ground, not many Miles from Boston; but the Dissolution of it by a Thaw, which within a few Hours melted it, made it not capable of lying under the Contemplation of so many Witnesses as it might be worthy of."

      As the Red Snow did not come under the Doctor's immediate Observation, he has spoken of it with commendable Caution; insomuch that his Character for Credulity is not enhanced by the Relation of the Story. Moreover it is a well known Fact that Red Snow is often mentioned by reputable northern Travelers. But we have never heard that it snowed Wool at any other Time and Place, except as mentioned above.

      In 1692, Dr. Mather published his Wonders of the Invisible World. This was the authorized Account of the Witchcraft Cases of that Time. In this he laid himself open to the Charge of Credulity, which, it cannot be denied, has been pretty well sustained ever since.

      Many have reproached Dr. Mather, as though he was the Author of that dismal and awful Delusion. This is singularly unjust. He was himself one of the deluded; and this is the only Charge that can lie against him relative to it. All the World then believed in Witchcraft, and People entered into it according to their Temperament and Circumstances. The Delusion was not a Native of New England, but an Exotic from the Father Land; and it had been well if this had been the only one imported thence. Even when Prosecutions had ceased, there was not a Cessation of a Belief in the Reality of Witchcraft; its Progress was stayed from a very different Cause, as is now too well known to be entered into or explained. Even to the present Day there are Thousands who believe in its Reality; and that Belief can only be extirpated by the Progress of genuine Knowledge. Within our Remembrance we could ride from Boston in a single Day, with a very moderate Horse, into a New England Town where the Belief in Witchcraft was very general, and where many an old Horse-shoe could have been seen nailed to half the Bedsteads in the Town to keep away those imaginary Miscreants who came riding through the Air upon Broomsticks, or across the Lots upon the Back of some poor old Woman, who perhaps from some Malady had not left her House for Years. How much short of a Day's Ride by Steam or otherwise it would now be necessary to take to reach a Place where the Belief exists, we shall not undertake, but leave for others to determine.

      Cotton Mather was undoubtedly the most prominent Author who wrote on Witchcraft, and in the full Belief of it, in his Time, in this Country; this Circumstance accounts for his being singled out by "one Robert Calef," who attacked him with some Success, even then, in his Book which he called More Wonders of the Invisible World, &c., which he published in London, in a quarto Volume, in the Year 1700. In his Book, Calef styles himself "Merchant, of Boston in New England." Now in the Absence of Proof to the contrary, it may not be unfair to presume, that Calef issued his Work quite as soon as he dared to, and quite as soon as public Opinion would tolerate a Work which had for its Aim a deadly Blow against a Belief in the imaginary Crime of Witchcraft. For we know that as soon as Calef's Book did appear, some of Dr. Mather's Friends came out with another Work against that Author, from the Title of which alone its Contents can pretty well be judged of. It is Some few Remarks upon a Scandalous Book written by one Robert Calef. But this Book and its Authors are alike almost unknown, while Calef occupies a conspicuous Place among the Benefactors of Mankind.

      The foreign Correspondence of Dr. Mather was very extensive; "so that," says his Son, "I have known him at one Time to have above fifty beyond Sea." Among his Correspondents were many of the most learned and famous Men in Europe; as Sir Richard Blackmore, Mr. Whiston, Dr. Desaguliers, Mr. Pillionere, Dr. Franckius, Wm. Waller, Dr. Chamberlain, Dr. Woodward, Dr. Jurin, Dr. Watts, &c., &c. In a Letter which he wrote in 1743 Dr. Watts says, "he had enjoyed a happy Correspondence with Dr. Cotton Mather, for nearly twenty Years before his Death, as well as with the Rev. Mr. Samuel Mather, his Son, ever since."

      In 1710 came out a Book from the Pen of our Author, which he entitled "Bonifacius: An Essay upon the Good to be devised by those who would answer the great End of Life." In this Work are many good Maxims and Reflections, but its Popularity has probably been very much enhanced by what Dr. Franklin has said of it. Dr. Mather was well acquainted with Franklin when the latter was a young Man; and when Franklin was an old Man, in the Year 1784, in writing to Samuel Mather, Son of our Subject, he thus alludes to it in his happy Style: "When I was a Boy, I met with a Book entitled, Essays to do Good, which I think was written by your Father. It had been so little regarded by a 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 on any other Kind of Reputation." In the same Letter is to be found that often told anecdote of an Interview he once had with Dr. Mather. This too, that it may lose nothing at our Hands, we will give in the Author's own Words: "You mention being in your seventy-eighth Year; I am in my seventy-ninth; we are grown old together. It is now more than sixty Years since I left Boston, but I remember well both your Father and Grandfather; having heard them both in the Pulpit, and seen them in their Houses. The last Time I saw your Father was in the Beginning of 1724, when I visited him after my first Trip to Pennsylvania. He received me in his Library, and on my taking leave showed me a shorter Way out of the House through a narrow Passage, which was crossed by a Beam overhead. We were still talking as I withdrew, he accompanying me behind, and I turning partly towards him, when he said hastily, 'stoop, stoop!' I did not understand him, till I felt my Head hit against the Beam. He was a Man that never missed any Occasion of giving Instruction, and upon this he said to me, 'You are young, and have the World before you; Stoop as you go through it, and you will miss many hard Thumps,' This Advice, thus beat into my Head, has frequently been of Use to me; and I often think of it, when I see Pride mortified, and Misfortunes brought upon People by their carrying their Heads too high." This Moral, so essentially good in itself, does not need the high Recommendation of a Franklin, though but for him it would not, probably, have been brought to the Knowledge of every Youth who has learned, or may yet learn to read.

      The Essay to do Good has passed through many Editions, but how many it would be difficult to СКАЧАТЬ