,
is pronounced one of the darkest of crimes. The same charge was made to
tell against Mr. Parris, helping effectually to remove him from the
ministry at Salem Village. _Leviticus_, xx., 6. "And the soul that
turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a
whoring after them, I will set my face against that soul, and will cut
him off from among his people." _1 Chronicles_, x., 13. "So Saul died
for his transgression, which he committed against the Lord, even
against the word of the Lord, which he kept not; and also, for asking
counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it, and
inquired not of the Lord, therefore he slew him."

For having so much to do with persons professing to suffer from, and
from others confessing to have committed, the sin of witchcraft, Mather
became the object of a scathing rebuke in the letter of Brattle, in a
passage I shall quote, in another connection.

Such, then, so far as I can gather, was Cotton Mather's plan for the
management of witchcraft investigations; such its impracticability; and
such the dangerous and injurious consequences to himself, of attempting
to put it into practice. He never fully divulged it; but, in the
_Advice_ of the Ministers and various other writings, endeavored to pave
the way for it. All the expressions, in that document and elsewhere,
which have deceived the Reviewer and others into the notion that he was
opposed to the admission of spectre evidence, at the trials, were used
as arguments to persuade "authority" not to receive that species of
evidence, in open Court, but to refer it to him, in the first instance,
to be managed by him with exquisite caution and discretion, and, thereby
avoid inconveniences and promote good results; and when he could not
subdue the difficulties of the case, to deliver back the obdurate and
unrepentant, to the Court, to be proceeded against in the ordinary
course of law. With this view, he has much to say that indicates a
tender regard to the prisoners. It is true that the scheme, if adopted,
would have given him absolute power over the community, and, for this
reason, may have had attraction. But, I doubt not, that he cherished it
from benevolent feelings also. He thought that he might, in that way, do
great good. But it could not be carried into effect. It was seen, at
once, by all men, who had any sense left, to be utterly impracticable,
and had to be abandoned. That being settled and dispose