be added to spectral testimony, to give it fatal effect. The
value, by the way, of Increase Mather's averment, that "more than that
which is called Spectre Evidence" was adduced against the persons
convicted, is somewhat impaired by the admission of Cotton Mather, just
before quoted, that "divers were condemned," against whom it was the
"chief evidence."

In stating the objection, by some, to the admission of spectral
evidence, on the ground that the Devil might assume the shape of an
innocent person, and if that person was held answerable for the actions
of that spectral appearance, it would be in the power of the Devil to
convict and destroy any number of innocent and righteous people, and
thereby "subvert Government and disband and ruin human society," Cotton
Mather gets over the difficulty thus: "And yet God may sometimes suffer
such things to evene, that we may know, thereby, how much we are
beholden to him, for that restraint which he lays upon the infernal
spirits, who would else reduce a world into a chaos."

This is a striking instance of the way in which words may be made, not
only to cover, but to transform, ideas. A reverent form of language
conceals an irreverent conception. The thought is too shocking for plain
utterance; but, dressed in the garb of ingenious phraseology, it assumes
an aspect that enables it to pass as a devout acknowledgment of a divine
mystery. The real meaning, absurd as it is dreadful, to state or think,
is that the Heavenly Father sometimes may, not merely permit, but will,
the lies of the Devil to mislead tribunals of justice to the shedding of
the blood of the righteous, that he may, thereby show how we are
beholden to Him, that a like outrage and destruction does not happen to
us all. He allows the Devil, by false testimony, to bring about the
perpetration of the most horrible wrong. It is a part of the "Rectoral
Righteousness of God," that it should be so. What if the Courts do admit
the testimony of the Devil in the appearance of a spectre, and, on its
strength, consign to death the innocent? It is the will of God, that it
should be so. Let that will be done.

But however the sentiment deserves to be characterized, it removes the
only ground upon which, in that day, spectral evidence was objected
to--namely, that it might endanger the innocent. If such was the will of
God, the objectors were silenced.

In concluding the examination of the question whether Cotton Mather
denou