emselves wiser than the white men.

"Of a truth," ejaculated Cotton Mather, clasping his hands and looking up
to Heaven, "it was a merciful Providence that brought this book under mine
eye! I will procure a consultation of physicians, and see whether this
wondrous Inoculation may not stay the progress of the Destroyer."

So he arose from Grandfather's chair, and went out of the library. Near
the door he met his son Samuel, who seemed downcast and out of spirits.
The boy had heard, probably, that some of his playmates were taken ill
with the small pox. But, as his father looked cheerfully at him, Samuel
took courage, trusting that either the wisdom of so learned a minister
would find some remedy for the danger, or else that his prayers would
secure protection from on high.

Meanwhile, Cotton Mather took his staff and three-cornered hat, and walked
about the streets, calling at the houses of all the physicians in Boston.
They were a very wise fraternity; and their huge wigs, and black dresses,
and solemn visages, made their wisdom appear even profounder than it was.
One after another, he acquainted them with the discovery which he had hit
upon.

But these grave and sagacious personages would scarcely listen to him. The
oldest doctor in town contented himself with remarking, that no such thing
as inoculation was mentioned by Galen or Hippocrates, and it was
impossible that modern physicians should be wiser than those old sages. A
second held up his hands in dumb astonishment and horror, at the madness
of what Cotton Mather proposed to do. A third told him, in pretty plain
terms, that he knew not what he was talking about. A fourth requested, in
the name of the whole medical fraternity, that Cotton Mather would confine
his attention to people's souls, and leave the physicians to take care of
their bodies.

In short, there was but a single doctor among them all, who would grant
the poor minister so much as a patient hearing. This was Doctor Zabdiel
Boylston. He looked into the matter like a man of sense, and finding,
beyond a doubt, that inoculation had rescued many from death, he resolved
to try the experiment in his own family.

And so he did. But, when the other physicians heard of it, they arose in
great fury, and began a war of words, written, printed, and spoken,
against Cotton Mather and Doctor Boylston. To hear them talk, you would
have supposed that these two harmless and benevolent men had plotted the
ruin of