he _afflicted_ might be
kept asunder, in the closest privacy; and one particular person (whom I
have cause to know), in pursuance of this advice, offered himself singly
to provide accommodations for any six of them, that so the success of
more than ordinary prayer, with fasting, might, with patience, be
experienced, before any other courses were taken."--_Magnalia_, Book
II., p. 62.

Hutchinson gives an extract from a letter, written by John Allyn,
Secretary of Connecticut, dated, "HARTFORD, March 18, 1693," to Increase
Mather, as follows: "As to what you mention, concerning that poor
creature in your town that is afflicted, and mentioned my name to
yourself and son, I return you hearty thanks for your intimation about
it, and for your charity therein mentioned; and I have great cause to
bless God, who, of his mercy hitherto, hath not left me to fall into
such an horrid evil."--_History_, ii., 61, note.

Further, it was on account of some particular plan, in reference to the
management of this description of evidence, I am inclined to think, that
he felt the importance of being present at the trials. For this reason,
he laments the illness that prevented his accompanying Richards to the
Court, at its opening, on the second of June, to "assist the noble
service," as he says, "with the utmost of my little skill and care."

This language shows conclusively, by the way, the great influence he
had, at that time, in directing the Government, particularly the Court.
He would not have addressed one of the Judges, in such terms, had he not
felt that his "skill and care" would be recognized and permitted to take
effect. We may well lament, with him, that he could not have been
present at the first trial. It would not, then, have been left to
conjecture and scrutiny, to determine what his plan was; and an open
attempt, to bring the Court to adopt it, might have given another turn
to affairs.

In his Diary, on the twenty-ninth of April, is the following: "This day
I obtained help of God, that he would make use of me, as of a John, to
be a herald of the Lord's Kingdom, now approaching." "My prayers did
especially insist upon the horrible enchantments and possessions, broke
forth in Salem Village, things of a most prodigious aspect, a good issue
to those things, and my own direction and protection thereabouts, I did
especially petition for."

The date of this entry is important. On the eleventh, nineteenth, and
twenty second of