Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 28, 2025
The marvellous happenings recorded in Cotton Mather's Magnalia no longer excite us to any "suspension of disbelief." We doubt the story of Pocahontas.
Grandfather proceeded to say, that, when Master Cheever died, he bequeathed the chair to the most learned man that was educated at his school, or that had ever been born in America. This was the renowned Cotton Mather, minister of the Old North Church in Boston. "And author of the Magnalia, Grandfather, which we sometimes see you reading," said Laurence. "Yes, Laurence," replied Grandfather.
The last of the works of Cotton Mather I shall examine, in this scrutiny of his retrospective opinions and position, relating to the witchcraft prosecutions, is the Magnalia, printed at London, in 1702. He had become wise enough, at that time, not to commit himself more than he could help. The Rev. John Hale, of Beverly, died in May, 1700.
See Hutchinson's History, vol. i. p. 455. Ibid, p. 40. Code of 1650, p. 90. Mather's Magnalia Christi Americana, vol. ii., p. 13.
Still another instance, the fame of which spread through the whole Colony and confounded any possible doubter, found record in the "Magnalia", that storehouse of fact so judiciously combined with fable that the author himself could probably never tell what he had himself seen, and what had been gleaned from others. Mr.
Atwater, Edward E. <i>History of the Colony of New Haven</i>. Printed at New Haven, 1881. Blake, Henry T. <i>Chronicles of New Haven Green</i>. Printed at New Haven, 1892. Winthrop, John. <i>History of New England</i>. Edited by James Savage. Boston, 1825. Mather, Reverend Cotton. <i>Magnalia Christi Americana</i>, i, 25. London, 1702.
Our superintendent, who was a man of culture and a Christian gentleman of the Puritan-school, dignified and reserved, used often to stop at my desk in his daily round to see what book I was reading. One day it was Mather's "Magnalia," which I had brought from the public library, with a desire to know something of the early history of New England.
To these might be added many an obscurer name, preserved in the quaint epitaphs of the "Magnalia": Blackman, "in spite of his name, a Nazarene whiter than snow"; Partridge, "a hunted partridge," yet "both a dove and an eagle"; Ezekiel Rogers, "a tree of knowledge, whose apples the very children might pluck"; Nathaniel Rogers, "a very lively preacher and a very preaching liver, he loved his church as if it had been his family and he taught his family as if it had been his church"; Warham, the first who preached with notes, and who suffered agonies of doubt respecting the Lord's Supper; Stone, "both a loadstone and a flint stone," and who set the self-sacrificing example of preaching only one hour.
Can the contrast of that day with the present, can the character of Cotton Mather be more plainly shown than by this story of the publication of the "Magnalia?" Many anxious days did he pass over other manuscripts. Some were lost in London for seven years. One book disappeared entirely from his ken, but was recovered by his heirs.
And there were all the weird old stories she had read some of them in Cotton Mather's "Magnalia," and begged others from Miss Recompense, who did not quite know whether she believed them or not, but she said emphatically that people had been mistaken and there was no such thing as witches. "A whole week!" said Uncle Winthrop. "Whatever shall I do without a little girl that length of time?"
Word Of The Day
Others Looking