The Witchcraft Delusion in New England: Its Rise, Progress, and Termination, (Vol 1 of 3). Calef Robert
of the Fashion or Practice, so much of late Years in Vogue, of reviling Cotton Mather. It has been carried to such an Extent in some Quarters, that any One who presumes to mention his Name, does it at the Peril of coming in for a Share of Obloquy and Abuse himself. Some not only charge him with committing all Sorts of Errors and Blunders, but they bring against him the more serious Charge of misrepresenting Matters of Fact. Now it would be well for those who bring those Charges to scrutinize their own Works. It may be, if they cannot see anything pedantic, puerile or false in them themselves, others may come in Contact with Errors even worse than those of Stupidity.
It is not to be denied that the Mind of Dr. Mather was singularly constituted; and whoever shall undertake an Analysis of it will find a more difficult Task, we apprehend, than those have found who content themselves with nothing further than vituperative Denunciations upon its Productions. We owe a vast Deal to Cotton Mather; especially for his historical and biographical Works. Were these alone to be struck out of Existence it would make a Void in these Departments of our Literature, that would probably confound any who affect to look upon them with Contempt. Even Dr. Douglass, although he has somewhere asserted, that, to point out all the Errors in the Magnalia, would be to copy the whole Book, is nevertheless, much indebted to him for Facts in many Parts of the very Work in which he has made that Statement; hence it would be very bad Logic that would not charge Dr. Douglass with copying Errors into his Work, knowing them to be Errors. It would be very easy for us to point to some Writers of our own Time equally obnoxious to the same plain Kind of Argument. And a late Writer of very good Standing has, with great apparent Deliberation said, that, "it is impossible to deny, that the Reputation of Cotton Mather has declined of late Years." This, of course, was his Belief; but it strikes us as very singular, that that same Author, should, at the same Time, make the largest Book on the Life of a Man, in such a State of Decline, that had hitherto appeared! But we are under no Concern for the Reputation of Cotton Mather, even in the Hands of his Enemies, and we have no Intention of setting up a special Defence of him or his Writings. We are willing the latter should pass for exactly what they are worth. All we design to do is to caution those a little who need Caution, and save them, if we may, from having the Windows in their own Houses broken, by the very Missiles they themselves have thrown.
But so far from the Reputation of Dr. Mather being in a Decline, his Writings have never been so much sought after as at the present Time! So much so that even Reprints of such of them as have been made are at once taken up, and at high Prices. Twenty Years ago, the Magnalia did not command above eight or ten Dollars, while Copies are at present rarely to be had for five Times their former Price. Reference is had to the original Edition, of course. This can hardly be taken as an Indication of a declining Reputation. The Style in all his Works, though peculiar to himself, is nevertheless attractive, and never tedious, although often upon tedious Subjects. In Point of Scholarship, he was not excelled by any in the Country, and would not suffer by a Comparison with the best of his Time in England.
The Charge of excessive Credulity has been brought against Dr. Mather, as though that Trait of Character were peculiar to him alone. There does not appear to be any Justice in singling him out as responsible for all the Credulity in the Country. That he was credulous no One will deny, nor will it be denied that he was surrounded by a credulous Community, the great Majority of which were equally credulous, and he was made to speak for them. Hence he has become conspicuous while others are nearly or quite forgotten. All Men are credulous in some Way and upon certain Things. Belief and Credulity are much the same. The Degree of Evidence required to convert the latter into the former has never been settled; nor can it be until all Minds are of the same Capacity. It requires a large Amount daily of Credulity to enable us to live in the tolerably good Opinion of our Companions in and out of Doors everywhere. Dismiss all of that liberal Sentiment from our Minds and we should be dismissed by the most of our Friends.
In the Reprints of some of the Works of Dr. Mather great Injustice has been done him, while, at the same Time, a Cheat has been put upon the Public. One Instance may be here given. In the Year 1815 there appeared a tolerably neat Edition of the Christian Philosopher,26 in a Duodecimo of 324 Pages, printed at Charlestown, for which a Copyright appears to have been taken out. On a cursory Examination we can discover no Ground for copyrighting this Edition, except for making it unlike the Original in one Respect only, namely, Omission of Important Matter. As an Example of the Omissions the following may be taken: "We read of Heaven giving Snow like Wool. I have known it give a Snow of Wool. In a Town of New England, called Fairfield, in a bitter snowy Night, there fell a Quantity of Snow, which covered a large frozen Pond, but of such a woolen Consistence, that it can be called nothing but Wool. I have a Quantity of it, that has been these many Years lying by me."
Now, in the Edition of 1815, this important Passage is entirely omitted! If Dr. Mather was imposed upon by some ignorant and mischievous Wight, that has nothing to do in excusing a Deception on the Part of a Publisher, who contracts to reprint a Work without any Reservation. If an Editor or Publisher thinks to save the Credit of his Author by falsifying his Text, he can only be sure of one Thing, and that is, to bring discredit upon himself.
I must here dismiss the Christian Philosopher; but in another Work by our Author, of an earlier Date,27 there is a singular Story of Snow which may be noticed here: "It was credibly affirmed, that in the Winter of the Year 1688, there fell a Red Snow, which lay like Blood on a Spot of Ground, not many Miles from Boston; but the Dissolution of it by a Thaw, which within a few Hours melted it, made it not capable of lying under the Contemplation of so many Witnesses as it might be worthy of."
As the Red Snow did not come under the Doctor's immediate Observation, he has spoken of it with commendable Caution; insomuch that his Character for Credulity is not enhanced by the Relation of the Story. Moreover it is a well known Fact that Red Snow is often mentioned by reputable northern Travelers. But we have never heard that it snowed Wool at any other Time and Place, except as mentioned above.
In 1692, Dr. Mather published his Wonders of the Invisible World. This was the authorized Account of the Witchcraft Cases of that Time. In this he laid himself open to the Charge of Credulity, which, it cannot be denied, has been pretty well sustained ever since.
Many have reproached Dr. Mather, as though he was the Author of that dismal and awful Delusion. This is singularly unjust. He was himself one of the deluded; and this is the only Charge that can lie against him relative to it. All the World then believed in Witchcraft, and People entered into it according to their Temperament and Circumstances. The Delusion was not a Native of New England, but an Exotic from the Father Land; and it had been well if this had been the only one imported thence. Even when Prosecutions had ceased, there was not a Cessation of a Belief in the Reality of Witchcraft; its Progress was stayed from a very different Cause, as is now too well known to be entered into or explained. Even to the present Day there are Thousands who believe in its Reality; and that Belief can only be extirpated by the Progress of genuine Knowledge. Within our Remembrance we could ride from Boston in a single Day, with a very moderate Horse, into a New England Town where the Belief in Witchcraft was very general, and where many an old Horse-shoe could have been seen nailed to half the Bedsteads in the Town to keep away those imaginary Miscreants who came riding through the Air upon Broomsticks, or across the Lots upon the Back of some poor old Woman, who perhaps from some Malady had not left her House for Years. How much short of a Day's Ride by Steam or otherwise it would now be necessary to take to reach a Place where the Belief exists, we shall not undertake, but leave for others to determine.
Cotton Mather was undoubtedly the most prominent Author who wrote on Witchcraft, and in the full Belief of it, in his Time, in this Country; this Circumstance accounts for his being singled out by "one Robert Calef," who attacked him with some Success, even then, in his Book which he called More Wonders of the Invisible World, &c., which he published in London, in a quarto Volume, in the Year 1700. In his Book, Calef styles himself "Merchant, of Boston in New England." Now in the Absence of Proof to the contrary, it may not be unfair to presume, that Calef issued his Work quite as soon as he dared to, and quite as soon as public Opinion would tolerate a Work which had for its Aim a deadly Blow against a Belief in the imaginary Crime of
Octavo, London, 1721. Printed for Emanuel Matthews, at the Bible