f it are brief, even in the
most private Diaries. It would have been well, perhaps, if the memory of
that day could have been utterly extinguished; but it has not. On the
contrary, as, in all manner of false and incorrect representations, it
has gone into the literature of the country and the world and become
mixed with the permanent ideas of mankind, it is right and necessary to
present the whole transaction, so far as possible, in the light of
truth. Every right-minded man must rejoice to have wrong, done to the
reputation of the dead or living, repaired; and I can truly say that no
one would rejoice more than I should, if the view presented of Cotton
Mather, in the _North American Review_, of April, 1869, could be shown
to be correct. In this spirit, I proceed to present the evidence that
belongs to the question.

The belief of the existence of a personal Devil was then all but
universally entertained. So was the belief of ghosts, apparitions, and
spectres. There was no more reluctance to think or speak of them than of
what we call natural objects and phenomena. Great power was ascribed to
the Devil over terrestrial affairs; but it had been the prevalent
opinion, that he could not operate upon human beings in any other way
than through the instrumentality of other human beings, in voluntary
confederation with him; and that, by means of their spectres, he could
work any amount of mischief. While this opinion prevailed, the testimony
of a witness, that he had seen the spectre of a particular person
afflicting himself or any one else, was regarded as proof positive that
the person, thus spectrally represented, was in league with the Devil,
or, in other words, a Witch. This idea had been abandoned by some
writers, who held that the Devil could make use of the spectre of an
innocent person, to do mischief; and that, therefore, it was not
positive or conclusive proof that any one was a Witch because his
spectre had been seen tormenting others. The logical conclusion, from
the views of these later writers, was that spectral evidence, as it was
called, bearing against an accused party, was wholly unreliable and must
be thrown out, entirely, in all cases.

The Reviewer says the "Clergy of New England" adopted the views of the
writers just alluded to, and held that spectral evidence was unreliable
and unsafe, and ought to be utterly rejected; and particularly maintains
that such was the opinion of Cotton Mather. It is true th