it; and he further informs us, "She'd hector me at a
strange rate for the work I was at, and threaten me with I know not what
mischief for it. She got a History I was writing of this Witchcraft; and
though she had, before this, read it over and over, yet now she could
not read (I believe) one entire sentence of it; but she made of it the
most ridiculous Travesty in the world, with such a patness and excess of
fancy, to supply the sense that she put upon it, as I was amazed at. And
she particularly told me, That I should quickly come to disgrace by that
History."

It is noticeable that the Goodwin children, like their imitators at
Salem Village, the "afflicted," as they were called, were careful,
except in certain cases of emergence, not to have their night's sleep
disturbed, and never lost an appetite for their regular meals. I cannot
but think that if the Village girls had, once in a while, like the
Goodwin children, been compelled to go for a day or two upon very short
allowance, it would have soon brought their "sport" to an end.

Nothing is more true than that, in estimating the conduct and character
of men, allowances must be made for the natural, and almost necessary,
influence of the opinions and customs of their times. But this excuse
will not wholly shelter the Mathers. They are answerable, as I have
shown, more than almost any other men have been, for the opinions of
their time. It was, indeed, a superstitious age; but made much more so
by their operations, influence, and writings, beginning with Increase
Mather's movement, at the assembly of the Ministers, in 1681, and ending
with Cotton Mather's dealings with the Goodwin children, and the account
thereof which he printed and circulated, far and wide. For this reason,
then, in the first place, I hold those two men responsible for what is
called "Salem Witchcraft."

I have admitted and shown that Cotton Mather originally relied only upon
prayer in his combat with Satanic powers. But the time was at hand, when
other weapons than the sword of the Spirit were to be drawn in that
warfare.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] When, in this article, I cite the name "Hutchinson," without any
distinguishing prefix, I mean THOMAS HUTCHINSON, Chief-justice,
Governor, and Historian of Massachusetts; so also when I cite the name
"Mather," I mean COTTON MATHER.

[2] The passages from Cotton Mather's Diary, used in this article, are
mostly taken from the _Christian Examiner_, xi., 24