ally as to "matters
of fact and evidence" and the "methods of conviction used in the
proceedings of the Court at Salem." The certificate repeats the form of
words, so often used in connection with the book, that it was written
"at the direction of His Excellency the Governor," without, as in all
cases, specifying who, whether Phips or Stoughton, was the Governor
referred to. As all the Judges were near at hand, and as the certificate
related to the proceedings before them, it is quite observable that only
the two mentioned signed it. As they were present, in the private
conference, with Cotton Mather, at the house of one of them, on the
twenty-second of September, when its preparation for publication was
finally arranged, they could not well avoid signing it. The times were
critical; and the rest of the Judges, knowing the Governor's feelings,
thought best not to appear. Of the three other persons, at that
conference, Hathorne, it is true, was a Judge of that Court, but it is
doubtful whether he often, or ever, took his seat as such; besides, he
was too experienced and cautious a public man, unnecessarily to put his
hand to such a paper, when it was known, as it was probably to him, that
Sir William Phips had forbidden publications of the kind.

There is another curious document, in the _Wonders_--a letter from
Stoughton to Mather, highly applauding the book, in which he
acknowledges his particular obligations to him for writing it, as "more
nearly and highly concerned" than others, considering his place in the
Court, expressing in detail his sense of the great value of the work,
"at this juncture of time," and concluding thus: "I do therefore make it
my particular and earnest Request unto you, that, as soon as may be, you
will commit the same unto the press, accordingly." It is signed, without
any official title of distinction, simply "WILLIAM STOUGHTON," and is
_without date_.

It is singular, if Phips was the person who requested it to be written
and was the "Excellency" who authorized its publication, that it was
left to William Stoughton to "request" its being put to press.

The foregoing examination of dates and facts seems, almost, to compel
the conclusion, to be drawn also from his letter, that Sir William Phips
really had nothing whatever to do with procuring the preparation or
sanctioning the publication of the _Wonders of the Invisible World_.
The same is true as to the request to the Ministers, for their _