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THE WONDERS OF THE
INVISIBLE WORLD.
BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE TRYALS OF SEVERAL
WITCHES LATELY EXECUTED IN
NEW-ENGLAND.
BY COTTON MATHER, D.D.
TO WHICH IS ADDED
A FARTHER ACCOUNT OF THE TRYALS OF THE
NEW-ENGLAND WITCHES.
BY INCREASE MATHER, D.D.
PRESIDENT OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
LONDON:
JOHN RUSSELL SMITH,
SOHO SQUARE.
1862.
INTRODUCTION.
he two very rare works reprinted in the present volume, written by twoof the most celebrated of the early American divines, relate to one ofthe most extraordinary cases of popular delusion that modern times havewitnessed. It was a delusion, moreover, to which men of learning andpiety lent themselves, and thus became the means of increasing it. Thescene of this affair was the puritanical colony of New England, sincebetter known as Massachusetts, the colonists of which appear to havecarried with them, in an exaggerated form, the superstitious feelingswith regard to witchcraft which then prevailed in the mother country. Inthe spring of 1692 an alarm of witchcraft was raised in the family ofthe minister of Salem, and some black servants were charged with thesupposed crime. Once started, the alarm spread rapidly, and in a veryshort time a great number of people fell under suspicion, and many werethrown into prison on very frivolous grounds, supported, as such chargesusually were, by very unworthy witnesses. The new governor of the[Pg vi]colony, Sir William Phipps, arrived from England in the middle of May,and he seems to have been carried away by the excitement, and authorizedjudicia