COTTON MATHER. AMONG the numerous writers of the first colonial era in New England, Cotton Mather stands as a kind of literary behemoth. In literary productiveness, though not in weighty character, he appears in the literature of the time with something of the hugeness that afterwards distinguished Samuel Johnson in England. His published writings reach the astonishing number of three hundred and eighty-three; and while many of them, it is true, are only pamphlets, there are also among them bulky volumes. He was the third of a line of distinguished ancestors, the relative standing of whom is given in an old epitaph: "Under this stone lies Richard Mather, This grandson was of course Cotton Mather, who was born Feb. 12, 1663, in Boston. On the side of his mother, who was a daughter of the celebrated pulpit-orator John Cotton, he likewise inherited talents of no usual order. After receiving his preparatory training in the free school of Boston, he entered Harvard College, at the age of twelve years, with superior attainments. During his collegiate course he was distinguished for his ability and scholarship; and at the time of his graduation, the president of the college, with a reference to his double line of illustrious ancestors, said in a Latin oration: "I trust that in this youth Cotton and Mather will be united and flourish again." He may be regarded as a typical product of the Puritan culture of his time; and with this fact in mind, his life becomes doubly interesting. He possessed a deeply religious nature, which asserted itself strongly even in his youth, and drove him to continual introspection. Troubled with doubts and fears about his salvation, he became serious in manner, and spent much time in prayer and fasting. At the same time he was active in doing good, instructing his brothers and sisters at home, and fearlessly reproving his companions for profanity or immorality. After leaving college, Cotton Mather spent several years in teaching. But inheriting two great ecclesiastical names, it was but natural for him to think of the ministry. Unfortunately, he was embarrassed by a strongly marked impediment of speech; but upon the advice of a friend, accustoming himself to "dilated deliberation" in public speaking, he succeeded in overcoming this difficulty. He preached his first sermon at the age of seventeen, and a few months afterwards was called to North Church, the leading congregation in Boston, as associate of his father. His preaching was well received a fact about which, perhaps, he was unduly concerned. With his habit of dwelling upon his inward states of mind, he noted in his Diary (to which we are much indebted for an insight into his subjective life) a tendency to sinful pride, which he endeavored to suppress by the doubtful expedient of calling himself opprobrious names. His method of sermonizing and preaching is well worth noting. It was the age of heroic sermons, the length of which was counted, not by minutes, but by hours. When he was at a loss for a text, "he would make a prayer to the Holy Spirit of Christ, as well to find a text for him as to handle it." But he was far from a lazy reliance upon divine aid. He carefully examined his text in the original language, and consulted the commentaries upon it. He very properly chose his subjects, not with a view to display his abilities, but to edify his hearers. Unlike his father, who laboriously committed his sermons to memory, he made use of extended notes, and thus gained both the finish of studied discourse, and the fervor of extemporaneous speaking. The question of marriage was suggested, not by the drawing of a tender, irresistible passion, but by calm, rational considerations of utility. Accordingly, there was nothing rashly precipitate in his courtship; "he first looked up to heaven for direction, and then asked counsel of his friends." The person fixed upon at last as his future companion was the daughter of Colonel Philips of Charlestown, to whom he was shortly afterwards married. "She was a comely, ingenious woman, and an agreeable consort." This union, as also his second marriage, was a happy one; but it is a suggestive fact that his third wife is referred to in his Diary only in Latin. She made his life wretched; and it is still uncertain whether she was the victim of insanity or of a demoniac ill-temper. From childhood, as is the case with most persons of extraordinary gifts, he was conscious of his superior ability, and expected and labored to be a great man. He assiduously employed every moment of time, keeping up a perpetual tension of exertion. Over the door of his library he wrote in capital letters the suggestive legend, "BE SHORT." His daily life was governed by a mechanical routine; yet, after the Puritanic fashion, he upbraided himself with slothfulness. He mastered not only Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, which was expected of every scholar of the time, but also Spanish, French, and one of the Indian tongues, in most of which he published books. He had the marvellous power, possessed by Spurgeon, Gladstone, and Macaulay, of mastering the contents. of a book with almost incredible rapidity. According to the testimony of his son, "He would ride post through an author." He had the largest library in New England; and its contents were so at command, that "he seemed to have an inexpressible source of divine flame and vigor." His literary activity was extraordinary. In a single year, besides keeping twenty fasts and discharging all the duties of a laborious pastorate, he published fourteen books. It is not strange that one of his contemporaries, in the presence of this extraordinary activity, should exclaim: "Is the blest Mather necromancer turned?" Among his numerous works, there is one that stands with monumental pre-eminence; it is the "Magnalia Christi Americana; or, The Ecclesiastical History of New England," from its first planting in the year 1620 to the year of our Lord 1698. It may justly be regarded as the most important book produced in America during the seventeenth century. Its scope will appear from the topics treated of in its seven books. The first book gives an account of the settlement of New England; the second contains "the lives of the governors and the names of the magistrates that have been shields unto the churches of New England;" the third recounts "the lives of sixty famous divines, by whose ministry the churches of New England have been planted and continued; " the fourth is devoted to the history of Harvard College, and of "some eminent persons therein educated;" the fifth describes "the faith and order of the churches;" the sixth speaks of "many illustrious discov eries and demonstrations of the divine providence in remarkable mercies and judgments"— the book in which, it is said, his soul most delighted; and the seventh narrates "the afflictive disturbances which the churches of New England have suffered from their various adversaries," namely, impostors, Quakers, Separatists, Indians, and the Devil. The work is a treasure-house of information. No historian was ever better equipped for his work. Besides access to a multitude of original documents that have since perished, he was acquainted with many of the leading men of New England, and had himself been identified with various important political and ecclesiastical interests. Yet the manner in which he discharged the functions of historian is not altogether satisfactory. Perhaps he was too near the events to be strictly impartial. His personal feelings - his friendships or his animosities - were allowed, perhaps unconsciously, to color his statements; and in regard to his facts, he is open to the very serious charge of being careless and inaccurate. While his work is indispensable for a thorough understanding of New England history, it is always safe to have his statement of important facts corroborated by collateral testimony. Notwithstanding his laborious application to reading and study, Cotton Mather was interested in a surprising number of philanthropic undertakings. He wrote a book entitled "Bonifacius, an Essay upon the Good that is to be Devised and Designed, with Proposals of Unexceptionable Methods to do Good in the World," - a work that places philanthropy upon a business basis, and anticipates many of the benevolent associations of the present day. Of this book Benjamin Franklin says that it "perhaps gave me a turn of thinking, that had an influence on some of the principal future events of my life." 1 Cotton Mather sought to check the vice of drunkenness, and was perhaps our first temperance reformer. Though he purchased a slave (for slavery then existed in New England), he interested himself in the education of negroes, and at his own expense established a school for their instruction. He wrote a work on the Christianizing of the negroes, and noted in his Diary: "My design is, not only to lodge a copy in every family in New England, that has a negro in it, but also to send numbers of them into the Indies." He took an interest in foreign missions, and proposed to send Bibles and Psalters among the nations. The darkest feature in the life of Cotton Mather a feature which avenging critics have by no means lost sight of - is his connection with the witchcraft tragedy. In common with people of every class in his day, he believed in the reality of witchcraft. In 1685, the year he was ordained, he published a work entitled "Memorable Providences relating to Witchcraft," which had the misfortune of being quoted as an authority in connection with the Salem horrors. Looking upon himself as specially set for the defence of Zion, he gave himself with Old Testament zeal to the extermination of what he believed a work of the Devil. Over against this dreadful delusion should be placed his heroic conduct in advocating vaccination at a time when it was considered a dangerous and impious innovation. When the 1 Autobiography, chap. i. |