hese
children, and afterwards sundry grown persons, suffered by the hand of
Satan, at Salem Village, and parts adjacent, _Anno 1691-2_, yet there
was more in their sufferings than in those at Boston, by pins invisibly
stuck into their flesh, pricking with irons (as, in part, published in a
book printed 1693, viz: _The Wonders of the Invisible World_)." This is
proof of the highest authority, that, with the exceptions mentioned,
there was a perfect similarity in the details of the two cases. Mr.
Hale's book had not the benefit of his revision, as it did not pass
through the press until two years after his death; and we thus account
for the error as to the date of the Goodwin affair.

In making up his _Magnalia_, Mather had the use of Hale's manuscript and
transferred from it nearly all that he says, in that work, about Salem
Witchcraft. He copies the passage above quoted. The fact, therefore, is
sufficiently attested by Mather as well as Hale, that, with the
exceptions stated, there was, "in all things," an entire similarity
between the cases of 1688 and 1692.

Nay, further, in this same way we have the evidence of Cotton Mather
himself, that his "printed account," of the case of the Goodwin
children, was actually used, as an authority, by the Court, in the
trials at Salem--so that it is clear that the said "account,"
contributed not only, by its circulation among the people, to bring on
the prosecutions of 1692, but to carry them through to their fatal
results--Mr. Hale says: [_p. 27_] "that the Justices, Judges and others
concerned," consulted the precedents of former times, and precepts laid
down by learned writers about Witchcraft. He goes on to enumerate them,
mentioning Keeble, Sir Matthew Hale, Glanvil, Bernard, Baxter and
Burton, concluding the list with "Cotton Mather's _Memorable
Providences, relating to Witchcraft_, printed, anno 1689." Mather
transcribes this also into the _Magnalia_. _The Memorable Providences_
is referred to by Hale, in another place, as containing the case of the
Goodwin children, consisting, in fact mainly of it. [_p. 23_]. Mather,
having Hale's book before him, must, therefore be considered as
endorsing the opinion for which the Reviewer calls me to account,
namely, that "the Goodwin affair had a very important relation to the
Salem troubles." What is sustained touching this point, by both the
Hutchinsons, Hale, and Cotton Mather himself, cannot be disturbed in its
position, as a truth