s he had taken, of what had occurred on the
evenings of the thirteenth and nineteenth. Mather sent a long letter,
not to be delivered, but read to him, in which he agreed to meet him, as
proposed, at one of the places; but, in the mean time, on the complaint
of the Mathers, for scandalous libels upon Cotton Mather, Calef was
brought before "their Majesties Justice, and bound over to answer at
Sessions." Mather, of course, failed to give him the meeting for
conference, as agreed upon. On the twenty-fourth of November, Calef
wrote to him again, referring to his failure to meet him and to the
legal proceedings he had instituted; and, as the time for appearance in
Court was drawing near, he "thought it not amiss to give a summary" of
his views on the "great concern," as to which they were at issue. He
states, at the outset, "that there are witches, is not the doubt." The
Reviewer seizes upon this expression, to convey the idea that Calef was
trying to conciliate Mather, and induce him to desist from the
prosecution. Whoever reads the letter will see how unfair and untrue
this is. Calef keeps to the point, which was not whether there were, or
could be, witches; but whether the methods Mather was attempting, in the
case of Margaret Rule, and which had been used in Salem, the year
before, were legitimate or defensible. He was determined not to suffer
the issue to be shifted.

Upon receiving this letter, Mather, who had probably, upon reflection,
begun to doubt about the expediency of a public prosecution, signified
that he had no desire to press the prosecution; and renewed the proposal
for a conference. Calef "waited on Sessions;" but no one appearing
against him, was dismissed. The affair seemed, at this crisis, to be
tending toward an amicable conclusion. But Mather failed to meet him;
and, on the eleventh of January, 1694, Calef addressed him again,
recapitulating what had occurred, sending him copies of his previous
letters and also of the Minutes he had taken of what occurred on the
evenings of the thirteenth and nineteenth of September, with these
words: "REVEREND SIR: Finding it necessary, on many accounts, I here
present you with the copy of that Paper, which has been so much
misrepresented, to the end, that what shall be found defective or not
fairly represented, if any such shall appear, they may be set right."

This letter concludes in terms which show that, in that stage of the
affair, Calef was disposed to treat