rally-received judgment of certain writers against the reception of
spectral evidence, he approved of the manner in which it had been
received by the Judges, at the Salem Trials, and eulogized them
throughout, from the beginning to the end of the prosecution, and ever
after. He vindicated, as a general principle, the _admission_ of that
species of testimony, on the ground of its being a sufficient basis of
enquiry and presumption, and needing only some additional evidence,--his
own Report and papers on file show how little was required--to justify
conviction and execution. This has been proved, at large, by an
examination of his writings and actions, and is fully admitted by him,
in various forms of language, on several occasions--substantially, in
his statement, that Spectral Testimony was the "chief" ground upon which
"divers" were condemned and executed, and, explicitly, in his letter to
Foster, in which he says that "a very great use is to be made" of it, in
the manner and to the extent just mentioned; and that, when thus used,
the "use for which the Great God intended it," will be made. In the same
passage, he commends the Judge for having admitted it; and declares they
had the divine blessing thereupon, inasmuch as "God strangely sent other
convincing testimony," to corroborate, and thereby render it sufficient
to convict. In his Address to the General Assembly, years afterward, he
fully admits that the Judges, in 1692, whose course he applauded at the
time, allowed persons to be adjudged guilty, "merely because" of
Spectral Testimony.

My main purpose and duty, in preparing this article, have been to
disprove the absolute and unlimited assertions made by the contributor
to the _North American Review_, that Cotton Mather was opposed to the
_admission_ of Spectral Evidence; "denounced it as illegal,
uncharitable, and cruel;" and "ever testified against it, both publicly
and privately;" and that the _Advice of the Ministers_, drawn up by him,
"was _very specific_ in _excluding_ Spectral Testimony."

It has been thought proper, also, to vindicate the truth of history
against the statements of this Reviewer, on some other points; as, for
instance, by showing that the opinion of Cotton Mather's particular
responsibility for the Witchcraft Tragedy, instead of originating with
me, was held at the time, at home and abroad, and has come down, through
an unbroken series of the most accredited writers, to our day; and that