The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-12-11
CHAPTER vi.

mtlgated and Sanctified glee. Increase
Mather's Further Account of New Eng
land Witches" prolonged and grateful
shudder which had attended their pres
ence and their taking off in former years
Lest there should be too much diversions
in frequent sermons and Thursday lee
tuIes-the only public entertainment of
the period-Thomas Shepherd wrote his
wine for Gospel Wantons." For dissi-
patton of another kind-now getting too
eommon-Increase Mather composed his
''Woe to Drunkards." Even Roger Will
Jams had to dig George Fox out of his
burrows, and Cotton Mather crossed the
century with his sMournful Decade"
while in unconscious irony Samuel Sewall
portrayed a dreary New England under
the figure Of 1.-THE New Haven as 1t APP
pears to Those Who Stand Upon the
New EARTH Meantime the worthy judge
was writing with equal Inconsistencies
the one valuable end-of-the-cen book,
his diary.
A graduate of Harvard and tutor at
twenty-one, Sewall. a young Englishman,
twelve years in Boston, begins his entries
on Dec. 8, 1873. 81 read to the senior
sophisters the fourteenth chapter of Heer-
boords Physick, etc. con
March %, I had my hair cut; June Is,
Thomas Sergeant was whipped before
prayer was had before and after by the
president. Noy. IL, morning proper fair,
the weather exceedingly benign, but (to
me) metaphoric, dark and portentous,
some prodigy appearing in every corner
of the skies" Dropping dates, abridging
and correcting the spelling;;> "Mr. Willard
breaches the lecture; sixty persons killed
at Quinebeck by barbarcus Indians; John
i1olyday stands In the pillory for coun-
terfeitipg lease; brewed my wife's
grooming beer; Quaker marched through
the town crying repeEt: artillery election
day; Mr.. West comes from Carolina for
cure of dry gripes; Mr. Stodda1d brings
particulars of the execution of Duke of
Monmouth; cars come to town Christmas
day; some observe the day. and are vexed
that the body of the people profane it;
blessed to God no authority as vet to
compel them to keep it; dreamed that our
Lord came to Boston; admired his good,
ness and wisdom in coming here and
spending some part Of his short life here;
L. Mather's Arrow against dancing comes
out; Elislim falls i'll of the measles: fu-
neral Of Lady Andres. Text, All flesh is
grass Mr.. Cotton Mather visits me;
rude to Cambridge lecture; Capt Frary
sees soldier in the common with an In
dian squaw; at the funeral of her hus-
band, Deacon Elliot, I led the Young
Widow and had scarf and gloves, bought
a Greek testament; Maj. Brown has
nome his bride; corrected Sam for breach
of the ninth commandment, saying he
mad been at the writing school when he
had not
sailing for England in November, 1893.
he notes, My Erasmus was quite loos-
ened out of the binding by the breaking
OF the water in the cabin. 1 put on a
clean shirt this morn. Ate Simon Gates
goose. Dream much of my wife, Read
the eleventh Hebrews, and sang the
1orty-s1xth Psalm. Getting ashore. he
visits Canterbury, Oxford and Cambridge.
hears sermons. dimes. buys commentaries.
sees the sights in London, makes his will
and sails for Boston, where his personal
history is continued with great and some
times painful particularly. This Is es-
peeiaily the case when anything is pllysi-
cally wrong with himself or his neigh
bors. Montague was not more unre-
served in describing personal ailments.
10 bodily fortunes and misfortunes of his
soul, and finally his heart, for as he gets
past his sixty-eighth year, his second wife
being three months dead, he makes the
following entries: Daughter Sewall ac-
quaints Mime. Winthrop that if she is
pleased to be within at 8 o. M, 1 would
wait on her. She answered she would
be at home. Had pleasant discourse.
about seven single persons sitting the
fore seat. She propounded one and an
other for me, but none would do" The
reason becomes apparent in a detailed
narration of several visits to Nine Win
throp herself, interspersed with letters
and presents of sermons, In return for
which he receives "a great deal of cour-
tesy.' But one day, Mime. Winthrop's
countenance was much changed, and
looked dark and lowering 1 prayed
there might be no more thunder and
lightning. 1 should not sleep all night
Later; Il go to Nine. Winthrop's, having
Dr. Sibb's Bowels with me to read. She
came after a good while and dismissed
him coldly, with no wine, as I can re-
member. The Lord will provide" He
does provide. Widow Mary Gibbs Is the
next recipient of glazed almonds, cakes,
paper, ink, waters, sermons and pro-
poSalS of marriage, and she accepts
Thus the devout, kindly, hopeful, exact
judge wrote in his frightening diary for
one-half a century, amassing material to
fill three goodly volumes-ffth, sixth and
seventh in the Massachusetts Historical
society collection. They contain the
minute history of Samuel Sewall, tutor,
librarian, preacher of one sermon, judge,
member of the governors council etc.
OF his official life he records less than of
MS personal experiences-bodily, social and
spiritual. Even about the famous witch
trials, where he was one Of the judges,
he wrote but little, repenting afterward
of his share In the widespread delusion of
the age. AS literature these records
have less value than as history, but for
interest to Americans they must always
surpass the famous diaries of his English
contemporaries, Evelyn and Popys
Mather's Mighty Name.
The name of Mather was a mighty
one at the close OF the SEVENTY CEN
and literary armament in 1910, with Rich
ard, and passed through the constella-
lions Of Increase, Cotton and Samuel.
In Cotton it blazed with midday splendor
and the "Magnalia Christi Americana"
has not yet faded from sight, like most OF
the $50 titles attributed to this champion
bookmaker of prolific tribe In fact,
good-sized family library was manufac-
tured by successive Mathers in four gen.
erations
The .'Magnalia'' Is landmark which
may divide the seventeenth and cigh-
tenth century, reviewing. as it does,
New England history from it's beginnings
to $685. AS its title indicates. mighty
exploits may be looked for in it's 1,160
pages. The book itself was a heroic per-
Torrance for a young man of thirty
four, though he was born old. None of
quence in his own esteem. The labor Of
two years was closed with a day Of