ruders
with just fear and resentment.

Imbued as the colonists were with demoniacal prepossessions, it
is not so surprising that they deemed their rising State beset by
spiritual enemies; and it is fortunate, perhaps, that the wilds
of North America were not still more productive of fiends and
witches, and more destructive massacres than that of 1690-92 did
not disgrace their colonial history. From the pen of Dr. Cotton
Mather, Fellow of Harvard College, and his father (who was the
Principal), we have received the facts of the history. These two
divines and their opinions obtained great respect throughout the
colony. They devoutly received the orthodox creed as expounded in
the writings of the ancient authorities on demonology, firmly
convinced of the reality of the present wanderings of Satan 'up
and down' in the earth; and Dr. Cotton Mather was at the same
time the chief supporter and the historian of the demoniacal war
now commenced. It was significantly initiated by the execution of
a papist, an Irishman named Glover, who was accused of having
bewitched the daughters of a mason of Boston, by name Goodwin.
These girls, of infantile age, suffered from convulsive fits, the
ordinary symptom of 'possession.' Mather received one of them
into his house for the purpose of making experiments, and, if
possible, to exorcise the evil spirits. She would suddenly, in
presence of a number of spectators, fall into a trance, rise up,
place herself in a riding attitude as if setting out for the
Sabbath, and hold conversation with invisible beings. A peculiar
phase of this patient's case was that when under the influence of
'hellish charms' she took great pleasure in reading or hearing
'bad' books, which she was permitted to do with perfect freedom.
Those books included the Prayer Book of the English Episcopal
Church, Quakers' writings, and popish productions. Whenever the
Bible was taken up, the devil threw her into the most fearful
convulsions.

As a result of this _diagnosis_ appeared the publication of 'Late
Memorable Providences relating to Witchcraft and Possession,'
which, together with Baxter's 'Certainty of the World of
Spirits,' a work Mather was careful to distribute and recommend
to the people, increased the fever of fear and fanaticism to the
highest pitch. The above incidents were the prelude only to the
proper drama of the Salem witches. In 1692, two girls, the
daughter and niece of Mr. Parvis, minister, suffering