t,
and taking, as in that case, if he saw fit, a bare denial as sufficient
for "sheltering" them, altogether, by keeping the accusation a profound
secret in his own breast, as he acknowledges he had done to a
considerable extent--at once claiming and confessing that he had "done
so much that way, as to sin in what he had done."

In language that indicates a correspondence and familiarity of
intercourse with persons, acting on the spot, at Salem Village, such as
authorized him to speak for them, he gives us to understand that they
concurred with him in his proposed method of treating the cases: "There
are very worthy men, who, having, been called by God, when and where
this witchcraft first appeared upon the stage, to encounter it, are
earnestly desirous to have it sifted unto the bottom of it." "Persons,
thus disposed, have been men eminent for wisdom and virtue." "They would
gladly contrive and receive an expedient, how the shedding of blood might
be spared, by the recovery of witches not beyond the reach of pardon.
And, after all, they invite all good men, in terms to this purpose."
"Being amazed at the number and quality of those accused, of late, we do
not know but Satan by his wiles may have enwrapt some innocent persons;
and therefore should earnestly and humbly desire the most critical
inquiry, upon the place, to find out the fallacy."--_Wonders_, 11.

Indeed, Parris and his coadjutors, at Salem Village, to whom these
passages refer, had, without authority, been, all along, exercising the
functions Mather desired to have bestowed upon him, by authority. They
had kept a controlling communication with the "afflicted children;"
determined who were to be cried out publicly against, and when; rebuked
and repressed the calling out, by name, of the Rev. Samuel Willard and
many other persons, of both sexes, of "quality," in Boston; and arranged
and managed matters, generally.

The conjecture I have ventured to make, as to Mather's plan of
procedure, explains, as the reader will perceive, by turning back to the
Minister's _Advice_, [_Pages 21, 22, ante_] much of the phraseology of
that curious document. "Very critical and exquisite caution," in the
_third_ Section; "that all proceedings thereabout be managed with an
exceeding tenderness towards those that may be complained of," in the
_fourth_; "we could wish that there may be admitted as little as
possible of such noise, company and openness, as may too hastily expose