thoroughly convinced of his
error; and there are scattered, in the margins of his Diary, expressions
of much sensibility at the extent to which he had been misled. Over
against an entry, giving an account of his presence at an Examination
before Magistrates, of whom he was one, on the eleventh of April, 1692,
at Salem, is the interjection, thrice repeated, "_Vae, Vae, Vae_." At
the opening of the year 1692, he inserted, at a subsequent period, this
passage: "_Attonitus tamen est, ingens discrimine parvo committi
potuisse Nefas._"[4]

FOOTNOTES:

[4] For the privilege of inspecting and using Judge Sewall's Diary I am
indebted to the kindness of the Massachusetts Historical Society: and I
would also express my thanks, for similar favors and civilities, to the
officers in charge of the Records and Archives in the Massachusetts
State House, the Librarian of Harvard University, the Essex Institute,
and many individuals, not mentioned in the text, especially those
devoted collectors and lovers of our old New England literature, Samuel
G. Drake and John K. Wiggin.

XIV.

COTTON MATHER'S WRITINGS SUBSEQUENT TO THE WITCHCRAFT PROSECUTIONS.

I propose, now, to enquire into the position Cotton Mather occupied, and
the views he expressed, touching the matter, after the witchcraft
prosecutions had ceased and the delusion been dispelled from the minds
of other men.

During the Winter of 1692 and 1693, between one and two hundred
prisoners, including confessing witches, remained in Jail, at Salem,
Ipswich, and other places. A considerable number were in the Boston
Jail. It seems, from the letter to Secretary Allyn of Connecticut, that,
during that time, the Mathers were in communication with them, and
receiving from them the names of persons whose spectres, they declared,
they had seen and suffered from, as employed in the Devil's work. After
all that had happened, and the order of Sir William Phips, forbidding
attempts to renew the excitement, it is wonderful that the Mathers
should continue such practices. In the latter part of the Summer of
1693, they were both concerned in the affair of Margaret Rule; and
Cotton Mather prepared, and put into circulation, an elaborate account
of it, some extracts from which have been presented, and which will be
further noticed, in another connection.

His next work, in the order of time, which I shall consider, is his
_Life of Sir William Phips_, printed in London, in 1697, and