Please also to ... some of your observations about the confessors and the credibility of what they assert, or about things evidently preternatural in the witchcrafts, and whatever else you may account an entertainment, for an inquisitive person, that entirely loves you and Salem.  Nay, though I will never lay aside the character which I mentioned in my last words, yet I am willing, that, when you write, you should imagine me as obstinate a Sadducee and witch-advocate as any among us:  address me as one that believed nothing reasonable; and when you have so knocked me down, in a spectre so unlike me, you will enable me to box it about among my neighbors, till it come—­I know not where at last.

But assure yourself, as I shall not wittingly make what you write prejudicial to any worthy design which those two excellent persons, Mr. Hale and Mr. Noyse, may have in hand; so you shall find that I shall be, sir, your grateful friend,

     C. MATHER.

P.S.—­That which very much strengthens the charms of the request which this letter makes you is, that His Excellency the Governor laid his positive commands upon me to desire this favor of you; and the truth is, there are some of his circumstances with reference to this affair, which I need not mention, that call for the expediting of your kindness,—­kindness, I say, for such it will be esteemed as well by him as by your servant,

     C. MATHER.

In order to understand the character and aim of this letter, it will be necessary to consider its date.  It was written Sept. 20, 1692.  On the 19th of August, but one month before, Dr. Mather was acting a conspicuous part under the gallows at Witch-hill, at the execution of Mr. Burroughs and four others, increasing the power of the awful delusion, and inflaming the passions of the people.  On the 9th of September, six more miserable creatures received sentence of death.  On the 17th of September, nine more received sentence of death.  On the 19th of September, Giles Corey was crushed to death.  And, on the 22d of September, eight were executed.  These were the last that suffered death.  The letter, therefore, was written while the horrors of the transaction were at their height, and by a person who had himself been a witness of them, and whose “good hap” it had been to “do some little service” in promoting them.  The object of the writer is declared to be, that he might be “more capable to assist in lifting up a standard against the infernal enemy.”  The literal meaning of this expression is, that he might be enabled to get up another witchcraft delusion under his own special management and control.  Can any thing be imagined more artful and dishonest than the plan he had contrived to keep himself out of sight in all the operations necessary to accomplish