s the sleepiness, even upon the most of good men
throughout the world, which indisposes them to observe and, much more,
to preserve, the remarkable dispensations of Divine Providence, towards
themselves or others. Nevertheless there have been raised up, now and
then, those persons, who have rendered themselves worthy of everlasting
remembrance, by their wakeful zeal to have the memorable providences of
God remembered through all generations."

These passages from the Mathers, father and son, embrace, in their
bearings, a period, eleven years before and two years after the Delusion
of 1692. They show that the Clergy, generally, were indifferent to the
subject, and required to be aroused from "neglect" and "sleepiness,"
touching the duty of flooding the public mind with stories of "wonders"
and "remarkables;" and that the agency of the Mathers, in giving
currency, by means of their ministry and influence, to such ideas, was
peculiar and pre-eminent. However innocent and excusable their motives
may have been, the laws of cause and effect remained unbroken; and the
result of their actions are, with truth and justice, attributable to
them--not necessarily, I repeat, to impeach their honesty and integrity,
but their wisdom, taste, judgment, and common sense. Human
responsibility is not to be set aside, nor avoided, merely and wholly by
good intent. It involves a solemn and fearful obligation to the use of
reason, caution, cool deliberation, circumspection, and a most careful
calculation of consequences. Error, if innocent and honest, is not
punishable by divine, and ought not to be by human, law. It is covered
by the mercy of God, and must not be pursued by the animosity of men.
But it is, nevertheless, a thing to be dreaded and to be guarded
against, with the utmost vigilance. Throughout the melancholy annals of
the Church and the world, it has been the fountain of innumerable woes,
spreading baleful influences through society, paralysing the energies of
reason and conscience, dimming, all but extinguishing, the light of
religion, convulsing nations, and desolating the earth. It is the duty
of historians to trace it to its source; and, by depicting faithfully
the causes that have led to it, prevent its recurrence. With these
views, I feel bound, distinctly, to state that the impression given to
the popular sentiments of the period, to which I am referring, by
certain leading minds, led to, was the efficient cause of, and, in