Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1849-05-18

they were %dragooned with n thousand pre-
,ernatural tormcnts, which gave no little
terror TO the beholders Of these unhappy
people" But some, as was supposed,
did not deny to sign the book, and thus
cnlisiing in the service of the devil, they
became ,ormentors Of the innocents,
sticking pins in children and weak wo-
men, throwing them into fits, sucking
"pr~eternatural iea,s" On their bodies,
frightening them with horrible sPectres
and ,ormeniing them with little rag pop
nets, into which when they stuck pins the
afflicted were pinned in the same place.
Those people who had thus consented 10
enter into the service of the devil, were
upon very remarkable evidence convict
cd before a special commission of magis-
tra,es and q Jury Of IL men at Salem, and
disposed Of as aforesaid.
No more instructive theological prob
lem, solved and demonstrated by a reduc-
Ito dd dbSurdum, can be found in all hu-
man history. 1t was an epoch, a winding
up Of an old mode of theological belief,
and the announcement Of u new order oil
the spiritual ages. 1t was the last act OF
New England baby-hood, and the dawn
Of reason. From this point we can look
back at it with almost equal horror, a.
muscmcnt and edificalion.
Increase Mather, D. D., President oil
the Harvard College, and his son Cotton
Ma,her, ID. D., F. r. S., &C., Pastor of
the Old North Church, in Boston, were,
ono hundred and fifty years ago, the
great lights of the New England church
cs. They were ambitious, especially the
son, to outshine everything that had gone
before or should ever come after, in their
re puiaton for learning and piety. Rev.
| Gotten Mather particularly desired to
! have it understood that he was not only
a divine, orator, poet, philosopher, and
historian, but that he was more than q
match for Satan. By his learning, and
more particularly by his astounding ped
antry he overwhelmed the people of a
simple age. Pope or jesuit never threw
his tolls around the ignorant more adroit-
ly. He not only abounded in his work
Of the ministry, praying and preaching
necessarily, but he wrote and published
tracts and volumes by the cart load.-
His piety oozed out of every pore, and
he offered himself up q living sacrifice of
gas and glory for the good of the church
and the up-building Of the gospel minis
try. 1t must strike every unprejudiced
reader Of history that Couon Mather was
as the Fourierists say, the grand pivotal
man Of it, without which it could no,
have got into motion as it did. His su-
perlaiivc and almost supernatural vanity
and cant we're the blister plasters which
drew the peccant humors 10 q head.
Witchcraf, had for ages been the hand
maid Of Priestcraft. 1t was known 10 the
English law. 1t hourished in all the
countries of Europe, more or less. Cases
had occurred in New England, in which
it was suspected. Idle rumors were al.
ways rife among the less intelligent por.
portion of the people, of the doings o.
Satan and his imps for the torment Of
mankind in this upper world, by way o
anticipation of the molten rhinestone be
meath. Cotton Malher, finding hat The
events of the Indian wars and the growtl
Of the country were lessening the con
sideration of the ministry, first set him
self 10 magnify his office, by collectin,
and publishing the most silly and ridicu
lous stories of witches with all the solem
nitv Of q reverend owl. He was no
contenied I publish them as spiri,ua
wonders, but must call them "Thaumd
togrdphia Pnenmdtica," and ~interlar
his foolish narrations with phrases c
Greek, Latin and Hebrew, sailing dow
. The whole with appropriate texts of SCRIP
ture. We shall sec how he succeed
cd.
In 1858, the four children of one job
! Goodwin Of his own parish, children lhi
: had been religiously educated, as he tel
. us, and showed a "towardly ingenuity,
o las we'll be bound,) were arrested by
: "stupendous wilchcraft." The accour
c which he gives Of their carrying OF
leaves the reader somewhat in doul
C whether 10 be aslonished at him for h
cunning or his credulity. But, as tn
case was the model one, and Cotto
o Mather has taken special pains 10 Civ
e lis details with great exaciness, we mu
quote from his Magnalia Christi suf
C cient 10 give the reader a clear perceI
S lion Of its features. The commence
n ment of this "%slupendous witchcraft
was as follows
1.-The eldest Of the children, a daugl
ter Of about thirteen years old, saw caus
d to examine their ~laundress, the daughtC
e Of a scandalous IRISH woman in III
d neighborhood, about some linen that W,
missing; and the woman beslowing yer
bad language on the child, in her daugt
ter's defence, the child was immediatel
ID taken with odd fits, that carried in thel
something dia6olical. 1t was not Ion
before n of her sisters, with two of he
%trolhers, were horribly taken with III
like fits, which the most experience
r physicians pronounced extraordinary an
pr%eternatural and one thing that IN
r more confirmed them in this opinio