s; he was so put in, together with
Willard and Carrier, that one of his hands and his chin, and a foot of
one of them, were left uncovered."

The Reviewer undertakes to set aside this statement; to erase it
altogether from the record; and to throw it from the belief and memory
of mankind. But this cannot be done, but by an arbitrary process, that
would wipe out all the facts of all history, and leave the whole Past an
utter blank. If any record has passed the final ordeal, this has. It is
beyond the reach of denial; and no power on earth can start the solid
foundation on which it stands. It consists of distinct, plainly stated
averments, which, as a whole, or severally, if not true, and known to be
true, might have been denied, or questioned, at the time. Not disputed,
nor controverted, then, it never can be. If not true to the letter, so
far as Cotton Mather is concerned, hundreds, nay thousands, were at
hand, who would have contradicted it. Certificates without number, like
that of John Goodwin, would have been procured to invalidate it.
Consisting of specifications, in detail, if there had been in it the
minutest item that could have admitted contradiction, it would have been
seized upon, and used with the utmost eagerness to break the force of
the statement. It was printed at London, in 1700, in a volume accredited
there, and immediately put into circulation here, twenty-eight years
before the death of Mather. He had a copy of it, now in possession of
the Massachusetts Historical Society, and wrote on the inside of the
front cover, "My desire is, that mine adversary had written a book,"
etc. His father, the President of Harvard University, had a copy; for
the book was burned in the College-square. Everything contributed to
call universal attention to it. Its author was known, avowed, and his
name printed on the title page; he lived in the same town with Mather;
and was in all respects a responsible man.

No attempt was made, at the time, nor at any time, until now, to
overthrow the statement or disprove any of its specifications.

Let us see how the Reviewer undertakes to controvert it. As to Mather's
being on horseback, the argument seems to be, that it was customary,
then, for people to travel in that way!

The harangue to the people to prevail upon them to pay no heed to the
composed, devout, and forgiving deportment of the sufferers, because the
Devil often appeared as an Angel of Light, sounded strangely fro