MATHER, COTTON, D D. {ante), having received his elementary education under his faiher's care, and at the free school in Boston, was able on entering Harvard college, at the age of 12, to read not only Virgil and other Latin classics, but Homer and Isocrates in Greek. On taking his first degree at the age of 16 the president addressed him in a Latin speech, praising his past conduct and attainments, and prodicting a glorious future. The descendant of a long line of ministers, he himself desired to enter the min istry, but an impedhnent of speech prevented, and he began to study medicine. Having overcome the infirmity he studied theology, and in 1680 became assistant to his father in the North church, Boston, and in 1684 was ordained as co-pastor. While zealous and faithful as a preacher, he found time to write for the press, and published numerous sermons and books on practical piety, at the same time accumulating materials for various intended treatises. He began also the study of some modern languages, among them the Iroquois Indian. He believed that ministers should concern themselves in politics, and, desirous of maintaining the ascendancy of the clergy in civil affairs which had long pre vailed, but which he saw declining, he prepared in 1689 the declaration of the people justifying the imprisonment of governor Andros. Sharing in the superstitions of the age, lie firmly believed in witchcraft, and suspecting that there were in Boston devotees of Satan, he applied himself earnestly to detect them. An Irish woman having been denounced as a witch, and Mather having no doubt that she was under the influence of an evil spirit, she was tried, condemned, and executed. His book on witchcraft, pub lished with the recommendation of all the ministers of Boston and Charlestown, was entitled Memorable Procielences relating to Witchcraft and Possessions; with Discoveries and Appendix. It was eagerly read in the colony, and was republished in England with a pre face by Richard Baxter; being pronounced perfectly convincing. 1Vith magistrates and people Mather urged the necessity of eradicating the sin. In 1692 the children of Mr. Parris, a minister of Salem, becoming strangely afflicted, accused an Indian servant of having bewitched them by her incantations. She was cast into prison, and confessed that she was guilty. The girls began to accuse others of being witches. The magistrates applied to Mather for advice, and lie urged the adoption of the most stringent measures. The
excitement was intense. By May, in Salem, 100 persons were in jail. The deputy-governor and magistrates went from Boston to conduct the preliminaxy examinations, and on the arrival of the new charter a special court was appointed to try the accused. Several, though protesting innocence, were declared guilty and hung. Those who confessed their guilt and were penitent, had their lives spared. By September 20 persons had been put to death; 8 more were under sentence of death ; 55 had confessed their guilt and escaped ; above a hundred more were lying in jail, and twice that number were at large, suspected. The last execution was that of a Mr. Burroughs, formerly a minister at Wells, which made a deep impression on the country. A cry of horror was raised. A reaction began which Mather could not arrest. He drew up, with the concurrence of the governor, the president of IIarvard university, and the ministers, an elaborate justification of what had been done, expressing " pious thankfulness to God for justice being so far executed among in a work entitled The 1Vo nders of the Invisible World: Observations upon the Nature, the _Number, and the Operations of the Devils. But it bad no effect. In the trials that fol lowed all the accused were acquitted. While some of the judges in the religiousassem blies prayed for pardon if they had shed innocent blood, Mather showed no signs of penitence or regret. In his Magnolia Christi, published 9 years afterwards, he indeed admits that perhaps there had been " a going too far in that affair." His influence now declined. Though admitted to be pre-eminent among his countrymen for genius and learning, he was twice passed over in the election of president of Harvard college. But lie continued to labor with zeal. He was a voluminous writer. His Magnolia Christi Amerkan,a was a collection of facts for an ecclesiastical history of New England. Among his other works are Essays to do Good; Christian Philosopher; and Directions to a Candidate for the Ministry. The work on which he labored from his 31st year to his death is entitled Blustrations of the Sacred Scriptures, and the manuscript is now in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society. He was the first, with Dr. Boylston, to introduce into this country inoculation for small-pox. In 1713 he was elected, on account of his Curiosa Americana, a fellow of the royal society of London, the first American who had received that distinction.