rence in the early
colonial history of this country. It presents phenomena in the realm of
our spiritual nature, belonging to that higher department of physiology,
known as Psychology, of the greatest moment; and illustrates the
operations of the imagination upon the passions and faculties in
immediate connection with it, and the perils to which the soul and
society are thereby exposed, in a manner more striking, startling and
instructive than is elsewhere to be found. For all reasons, truth and
justice require of those who venture to explore and portray it, the
utmost efforts to elucidate its passages and delineate correctly its
actors.

With these views I hail with satisfaction the criticisms that may be
offered upon my book, without regard to their personal character or
bearing, as continuing and heightening the interest felt in the subject;
and avail myself of the opportunity, tendered to me without solicitation
and in a most liberal spirit, by the proprietor of this Magazine, to
meet the obligations which historical truth and justice impose.

The principle charge, and it is repeated in innumerable forms through
the sixty odd pages of the article in the _North American_, is that I
have misrepresented the part borne by Cotton Mather in the proceeding
connected with the Witchcraft Delusion and prosecutions, in 1692.
Various other complaints are made of inaccuracy and unfairness,
particularly in reference to the position of Increase Mather and the
course of the Boston Ministers of that period, generally. Although the
discussion, to which I now ask attention, may appear, at first view, to
relate to questions merely personal, it will be found, I think, to lead
to an exploration of the literature and prevalent sentiments, relating
to religious and philosophical subjects, of that period; and, also, of
an instructive passage in the public history of the Province of
Massachusetts Bay.

I now propose to present the subject more fully than was required, or
would have been appropriate, in my work on Witchcraft.

I.

THE CONNECTION OF THE MATHERS WITH THE SUPERSTITIONS OF THEIR TIME.

In the first place, I venture to say that it can admit of no doubt, that
Increase Mather and his son, Cotton Mather, did more than any other
persons to aggravate the tendency of that age to the result reached in
the Witchcraft Delusion of 1692. The latter, in the beginning of the
Sixth Book of the _Magnalia Christi Americana_, refers