OPINION AS TO COTTON MATHER, CONTINUED. FRANCIS HUTCHINSON.
DANIEL NEAL. ISAAC WATTS. THOMAS HUTCHINSON. WILLIAM BENTLEY. JOHN
ELIOT. JOSIAH QUINCY.

It was the common opinion in England, that the Mathers, particularly the
younger, were pre-eminently responsible for the proceedings at Salem, in
1692. Francis Hutchinson, in the work from which I have quoted, speaks
of the whole system of witchcraft doctrine, as "fantastic notions,"
which are "so far from raising their sickly visions into legal evidence,
that they are grounded upon the very dregs of Pagan and Popish
superstitions, and leave the lives of innocent men naked, without
defence against them;" and in giving a list of books, written for
upholding them, mentions, "Mr. Increase and Mr. Cotton Mather's several
tracts;" and, in his Chapter on Witchcraft in Massachusetts, in 1692,
commends the book of "Mr. Calef, a Merchant in that Plantation."

About the same time, the Rev. Daniel Neal, the celebrated author of the
_History of the Puritans_, wrote a _History of New England_, in which he
gives place to a brief, impartial, and just account of the witchcraft
proceedings, in 1692. He abstains from personal criticisms, but
expresses this general sentiment: "Strange were the mistakes that some
of the wisest and best men of the country committed on this occasion;
which must have been fatal to the whole Province, if God, in his
Providence, had not mercifully interposed." The only sentence that
contains a stricture on Cotton Mather, particularly, is that in which he
thus refers to his statement that a certain confession was _freely_
made. Neal quietly suggests, "whether the act of a man in prison, and
under apprehension of death, may be called free, I leave others to
judge." Dr. Isaac Watts, having read Neal's book, thought it necessary
to write a letter to Cotton Mather, dated February 10, 1720;
(_Massachusetts Historical Collections, I., v., 200_) and, describing a
conversation he had just been having with Neal, says: "There is another
thing, wherein my brother is solicitous lest he should have displeased
you, and that is, the Chapter on Witchcraft, but, as he related matters
of fact, by comparison of several authors, he hopes that you will
forgive that he has not fallen into your sentiments exactly." The
anxiety felt by Neal and Watts, lest the feelings of Mather might be
wounded, shows what they thought of his implication with the affair.
This inference is rendered un