Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/290

 278 MATHER MATHEW by George Offor. He married a daughter of John Cotton. HI. Cotton, an American cler- gyman, son of the preceding, born in Boston, Feb. 12, 1663, died Feb. 13, 1728. He studied at the free school in Boston, and graduated at Harvard college in 1678. In his 14th year he began a system of rigid and regular fasting and vigils, which he continued through life, and at the age of 16 made the Christian pro- fession. After leaving college he taught, and having overcome an impediment in his speech, he then devoted himself particularly to theo- logical studies. In 1680 he became the assis- tant of his father in the pastorate of the North church, Boston, and in 1684 was ordained as his colleague. It was his aim to maintain the ascendancy which had belonged to the clergy in New England in civil affairs, but which was then on the decline; and in 1689 he prepared the public declaration justifying the imprison- ment of Gov. Andros. In 1685 he published his " Memorable Providences relating to Witch- craft and Possessions," narrating cases which had occurred- at intervals in different parts of the country, which was used as an authority in the prosecution of the "Salem tragedy." When the children of John Goodwin became curiously affected in 1688, he was one of the four ministers of Boston who held a day of fasting and prayer, and favored the suspicion of diabolical visitation. He afterward took the eldest daughter to his house in order to inspect the spiritual and physiological phe- nomena of witchcraft, and his experiments are wonderful instances of curiosity and cre- dulity. He discovered that the devils were familiar with the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, but seemed less skilled in tbe Indian languages, suspected that they were not all alike saga- cious, and was persuaded that he himself was shielded against their power by special pro- tection of Heaven. A discourse, in which he pronounced witchcraft "the most nefandous high treason against the Majesty on high," was printed with a copious narrative of his recent researches, and the particulars were reprinted in London with a preface by Richard Baxter. When the first phenomena occurred at Salem in 1692, he at once became a prominent ad- viser concerning them, expressing his eager- ness " to lift up a standard against the infernal enemy," whose assaults upon the country he regarded as "a particular defiance upon my poor endeavors to bring the souls of men unto heaven;" and in order to convince" all who doubted the obsessions and disapproved of the executions, he wrote his " Wonders of the In- visible World " (1692), which received the ap- probation of the president of Harvard college and of the governor of the state, though it was designed to encourage the excesses and to promote " a pious thankfulness to God for justice being so far executed among us." When the reaction in the popular mind fol- lowed, he vainly attempted to arrest it ; and though he afterward admitted that "there had been a going too far in that affair," he never expressed regret for the innocent blood that had been shed, and charged the responsi- bility upon the powers of darkness. Finally, he sought to shun the odium of the popular feeling by declaring the subject " too dark and deep for ordinary comprehension," and refer- ring it for decision to the day of judgment. By the publication of Robert Calef's " More Wonders of the Invisible World" (London, 1700), in which the veracity of many of the narratives of Mather was disputed, the delu- sion was at length dissipated. Though his influence declined, his activity continued. His publications amounted to 382, many of them small books and sermons. His Magnolia Ohristi Americana (London, 1702 ; 2 vols., Hartford, 1820) is a chaotic collection of ma- terials for an ecclesiastical history of New England, concerning which he was admitted to know more particulars than any other man. In 1713 his Curiosa Americana was read be- fore the royal society of London, and he was elected to that body, being the first American to receive this distinction. In its " Transac- tions " in 1721 appeared an account of the practice of inoculation for the smallpox ; and by the efforts of Mather in connection with Dr. Boylston, against both professional and popular prejudice, the operation was first per- formed in Boston. His " Essays to Do Good " (1710) and his "Christian Philosopher" and " Directions for a Candidate of the Ministry " enjoyed high repute. His greatest undertaking was entitled " Illustrations of the Sacred Scrip- tures." He labored upon it from his 31st year to his death, and the manuscript is now in the library of the Massachusetts histori- cal society. His life was written by his son, Samuel Mather (1729), and again by W. B. O. Peabody in Sparks's " American Biography." MATHEW, Theobald, "the apostle of temper- ance," born at Thomastown, county Tipperary, Ireland, Oct. 10, 1790, died Dec. 8, 1856. He was educated in an academy at Kilkenny and the college of Maynooth, and entered a Capu- chin convent at Kilkenny, where he remained until after his ordination in 1814, wben he was placed in charge of a chapel in Cork. His ur- bane manners and charitable disposition soon acquired for him an extraordinary influence. He interested himself warmly in the condition of the lower classes, and organized a religious association for visiting the poor and sick, in which he induced numbers of young men to enroll themselves. In 1838 a Quaker first di- rected his attention to the necessity of sup- pressing intoxication. Soon afterward he was invited by several teetotallers in Cork to join them in devising a public crusade against drunk- enness. A total abstinence society was formed, of which he was unanimously chosen president. Thirty-five persons took the pledge at his hands at once ; on the following day several hundreds joined the society, and in the course of five months he administered the pledge at Cork alone