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 vile 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 existed, 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, 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 as the opponent of a remarkable delusion.

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 near 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 reflexions, 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 Doctor Mather. This too, that it may lose nothing at our hands, we will give in its author's own words. "You mention being in your seventyeighth 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 over head. 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.

It may be too much a custom for us to dwell on the errors and misfortunes of people while living; and to err, on the other hand, by making their characters appear too well after they have passed away; especially if they have been sufficiently conspicuous in life to require a written memorial of them after their decease. Though Dr. Cotton Mather had enemies while living, his memory has been pursued with more malignity since his death, than has happened to that of most men; and as we conceive, without sufficient reason, and which could only be warranted by the most undoubted proofs, that he has purposely led us into errors, and that he acted falsely on the most important occasions; and that, finally, he was too bad a man to make any acknowledgement of all this, though conscious of it when he took his final departure with the messenger of his last summons.

Nobody will charge the REV. THOMAS PRINCE with insincerity in what he has said of his co-laborers, and HE says, " Dr. Cotton Mather, though born and constantly residing in this remote corner of America,3 has yet for near these forty years made so rising

and great a figure in the learned world, as has attracted to him while alive, the eyes of many at the furthest distance; and now deceased, can't but raise a very general wish to see the series, and more especially the domestic part of so distinguished a life exhibited. His printed writings so full of piety and various erudition, his vast correspondence, and the continual reports of travellers who had conversed with him, had spread his reputation into other countries. And when, about 14 years ago, I travelled abroad, I could not but admire to what extent his fame had reached, and how inquisitive were gentlemen of letters to hear and know of the most particular and lively manner, both of his private conversation and public performances among us."

Dr. Colman speaks in the highest terms of Dr. Mather, in his Funeral Sermon. "His printed works," he says, "will not convey to posterity, nor give to strangers a just idea of the real worth and great learning of the man." To this and a great deal more equally commendatory, Mr. Prince subscribes in these words: "Every one who intimately knew the Doctor will readily assent to this description."

It would be difficult, perhaps, to produce an example of industry equal to that of which we are speaking. In one year, it is said he kept sixty fasts and twenty vigils, and published fourteen books all this besides performing his ministerial duties; which in those days, were something more than nominal. He kept a diary, which has been extensively used by some of his biographers, but we have not sought after it, as it is said to be scattered in different places! How this happened we have not been informed. Notwithstanding he published so many works, he left nearly as much unpublished in manuscript; the principal part of which is entitled "Biblia Americana," or " The Sacred Scriptures of the Old and New Testament Illustrated." For the publication of this work proposals were issued soon after its author died, but nothing further seems to have been done about it. Of the "Biblia Americana," the Doctor's son remarks, "That is a work, the writing of which is enough constantly to employ a man, unless he be a miracle of diligence, the half of the three score years and ten, the sum of years allowed to us."

It remains now to mention the book by which Dr. Mather is best known, and which will make his name prominent through all coming time-the reader's mind is already in advance of the pen the MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA. This was printed in London, in 1702, in a moderate sized folio volume, the aggregate of its pages being 794. It is chiefly a collection of what the author had before printed on historical and biographical subjects. The value of its contents has been variously estimated. Some decrying it below any value, while others pronounce it "the only classic ever written in America." At the hazard of incurring the charge of stupidity, we are of the decided opinion that it has a value between those extremes. But we have sufficiently expressed our mind on the value of the author's

works before. There have been two editions of the "MAGNALIA;" the last was printed at Hartford, in two volumes, octavo, 1820. Unfortunately, this edition was printed from a copy of that in folio, which had not the errata, and consequently abounds with all the errors contained in the original edition. To those who do not understand the matter, this printing an edition of the “Magnalia" without correcting its errata, may seem to incur for the publisher severe reprehension. But the truth appears to be, that the copy used in printing the new edition had not the complete errata attached to it; and that, in fact, but very few copies of the original edition can be found to which it is attached. Now we account for its rarity in this way. Dr. Mather living in Boston while his work was printing in London, could make no corrections while it was passing through the press; but when he received his copies afterwards, he found so many errors that he was induced to print an extra sheet of corrections. This extra sheet may not have been struck off until most of the copies of the Magnalia which had been sent to New England, were distributed. Thus we account for the rare occurrence of copies of the Magnalia containing the errata; and hence we think the publisher of the last edition should not be too severely censured. That our solution is correct, we would mention that out of a great many copies of the folio edition imported by ourselves and others from England, not one of them contained the errata in question.

On the last page of the Magnalia, the following are the last three lines:-"ERRATA. Reader, Carthagenia was of the mind, that unto those three things which the ancients held impossible, there should be added this fourth, to find a book printed without erratas. It seems the hands of Briareus, and the eyes of Argus will not prevent them." And the additional errata of which we have been speaking, the author thus prefaces:-"The Holy Bible it self, in some of its editions, hath been affronted with scandalous errors of the press-work; and in one of them, they so printed those words, Psalms 119, 161, Printers have persecuted me,'" &c.

When the Magnalia was published, Dr. Mather's old school master, among others, wrote commendatory poetry upon it, which was according to the fashion of the day, inserted in its introductory pages. The following brief specimen by TOMPSON, may not be thought inappropriate to be extracted here:

"Is the bless'd MATHER necromancer turn'd,
To raise his country's Father's Ashes Urn'd?
Elisha's dust, life to the dead imparts;

This prophet by his more familiar arts,

Unseals our hero's tombs, and gives them air;

They rise, they walk, they talk, look wondrous fair;
Each of them in an orb of light doth shine,

In liveries of Glory most divine.

When ancient names I in thy pages meet,

Like gems on Aaron's costly breast-plate set;

Methinks Heaven's open, while great saints descend,

To wreathe the brows, by which their acts were penned."

In the book, which before all others, we should expect to find full and ample materials for a genealogy of Dr. Mather's own family, a very meager and unsatisfactory account only is to be seen; yet, as deficient and meager as it is, it is of great importance, as containing nothing upon the subject but what the author did know. We refer to "THE LIFE OF THE VERY REVEREND AND LEARNED COTTON MATHER, D. D., and F. R. S.," &c., by his son, SAMUEL MATHER, M. A., published the next year after the death of the author's father. The sum of what this book contains on our immediate subject we shall condense into a paragraph, as follows:

After informing us that his father was born on Thursday, Feb. 12, 1662-3, at Boston, in New England," he continues, “I have no great disposition to enquire into the remote antiquities of his family; nor, indeed, is it matter of much consequence that in our Coat of Arms, we bear Ermine, Or, A Fess, wavy, Azure, three Lions rampant; or; for a Crest, on a wreath of our Colours a Lion Sedant, or on a Trunk of a Tree vert." 5 "His mother was Maria, the daughter of the renowned Mr. JOHN COTTON, who was a man of very exalted piety and uncommon learning: Out of respect to this excellent man, he was called COTTON. His education was at the free school in Boston, under the care, first, of Mr. BENJAMIN THOMPSON, a man of great learning, last, under the famous Mr. EZEKIEL CHEEVER." At the age of 16 he graduated, and when 18, received the degree of M. A., from the hands of his own father, Dr. Increase Mather, who was then President of Harvard College. At the age of 24 he was married, and in 1702 his wife died. In somewhat less than a year he married again; "one of good sense, and blessed with a complete discretion, with a very handsome, engaging countenance; and one honorably descended and related, 'twas Mrs. ELIZABETH HUBBARD, who was the daughter of Dr. JOHN CLARK, who had been a widow four years. He rejoiced in her as having great spoil." By his third wife he had no issue. By the two former wives he had fifteen children, only two of which are living; one a daughter by the first wife; the other, a son by the second; he is the writer. his first wife he had nine children, of which but four arrived to man's or woman's estate. By his second, two children only lived to grow up out of six."

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By

Such is the account of the children of Cotton Mather by one of those children; and although he tells us there were fifteen, from his account we can learn the names of five only; nor have we been able, from all other sources to make out the names of but thirteen.

It is said in the "Mather Genealogy," mentioned in the note, that a daughter of Dr. Cotton Mather, named Jerusha, married a Smith of Suffield, Ct., and that she was the grandmother of JOHN COTTON SMITH, late Governor of that State; on the authority of Gov. Smith himself. This must be an error,

if our account of the children be correct, because it is shown that