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,
Who had a son greater than his father,
And eke a grandson greater than either."

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

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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 ? "