for witchcraft, he favored the execution of what he deemed wholesome law. We regret that he rudely broke the spell which the hallowing speech and prayer of the saintly Burroughs were bringing upon the witnessing crowd. But we question whether the special reputed crime for which Burroughs was about to die, caused Mather to allude to him as the _devil_. Burroughs, though a preacher, had not been regularly ordained, or surely not in a way that satisfied Mather; also he was too regardless of the ordinances of religion, and too free a thinker, to suit the taste of the pastor of the North Church in Boston. This was, we think, his great offense in Mather's view; and this caused the latter to say in reference to one who may have been more God-like and Christ-like in spirit than himself, "Even the devil may be changed into an angel of light." That saying, under its circumstances, is damaging to Mather; yet it does not bear against him in matters pertaining to witchcraft, but to those of sectarianism or bigotry. Mather the _humane_ and Mather the _fame-seeker_ present very different aspects in their connections with witchcraft. As we view him in cases where he was leader and director, as those of Mercy Short and Margaret Rule, matters were so managed that no one was brought to examination upon suspicion of bewitching them, and Mather's words and acts were uniformly designed to prevent any arraignment. Prayer, fastings, manipulations, and all practicable privacy and quiet were his preferred appliances for closing up the devil's avenues of access, and of barring him off from man. This was Mather the _humane_, was Mather the _practical pastor_. But when the courts and men of influence and high position had applied, as they interpreted them, "the laws of God and the wholesome statutes of the English nation for the detection of witchcraft," the thirster for public approbation, not only refrained from protest against bloodshed, but lacked modesty enough to hold him back from hinting that his own productions might have helped on the beneficent work which had been accomplished; for he carefully let the world know that Mr. _Mather, the younger_, drew up the advice of the ministers to the court; and after having written out an account of the trials at Salem, he said, "I shall rejoice that God is glorified, if the publication of these trials may promote such a pious thankfulness to God _for justice being so far executed among us_," as the ministers piously expressed in their advice. This was Mather the fame-seeker, the ecclesiastic, and the subject of their Majesties, William and Mary. Mather was not a well-balanced man. Consistency all round was not conspicuous in him, yet he was consistent in his own treatment and management of all his special patients, and also in his efforts to make it known that himself might deserve some meed of merit for the murderous course pursued by the authorities for stopping the ravages of the evil one.