r correction, and as Mather specified some
items which he deemed erroneous, his declaration that all the rest was a
tissue of falsehoods, was utterly futile; and can only be taken as an
unmeaning and ineffectual expression of temper. So far as the
truthfulness of Calef's statements, generally, is regarded, there is no
room left for question.

In his Diary for February, 1700, Mather says, speaking of the "calumnies
that Satan, by his instrument, _Calf_, had cast upon" him and his
father, "the Lord put it into the hearts of a considerable number of our
flock, who are, in their temporal condition, more equal unto our
adversary, to appear in our vindication." A Committee of seven,
including John Goodwin, was appointed for this purpose. They called upon
their Pastors to furnish them with materials; which they both did. The
Committee drew up, as Mather informs us, in his Diary, a "handsome
answer unto the slanders and libels of our slanderous adversary," which
was forthwith printed, with the names of the members of the Committee
signed to it. The pamphlet was entitled, _Some Few Remarks_, &c. Mather
says of it: "The Lord blesses it, for the illumination of his people in
many points of our endeavour to serve them, whereof they had been
ignorant; and there is also set before all the Churches a very laudable
example of a people appearing to vindicate their injured Pastors, when a
storm of persecution is raised against them."

This vindication is mainly devoted to the case of the Goodwin children,
twelve years before, and to a defence of the course of Increase Mather,
in England, in reference to the Old and New Charters. No serious attempt
was made to controvert material points in Calef's book, relating to
Salem Witchcraft. As it would have been perfectly easy, by certificates
without number, to have exposed any error, touching that matter, and as
no attempt of the kind was made, on this or any other occasion, the only
alternative left is to accept Hutchinson's conviction, that "Calef was a
fair relator" of that passage in our history.

His book has, therefore, come down to us, bearing the ineffaceable stamp
of truth.

It was so regarded, at the time, in England, as shown in the manner in
which it was referred to by Francis Hutchinson and Daniel Neal; and in
America, in the way in which Thomas Hutchinson speaks of Calef, and
alludes to matters as stated by him. I present, entire, the judgment of
Dr. John Eliot, as given in hi