Nor can we esteem alterations made in the sufferers, by a
look or touch of the accused, to be an infallible evidence of guilt, but
frequently liable to be abused by the devil's legerdemains.
"7. We know not whether some remarkable affronts given the devils, by
our disbelieving these testimonies whose whole force and strength is
from them alone, may not put a period unto the progress of the dreadful
calamity begun upon us, in the accusation of so many persons whereof
some, we hope, are yet clear from the great transgression laid to their
charge.
"8. Nevertheless, we cannot but humbly recommend unto the government,
the speedy and vigorous prosecutions of such as have rendered themselves
obnoxious, according to the directions given in the laws of God and the
wholesome statutes of the English nation for the detection of
witchcrafts."
[Footnote E: An illustration: The child Ann Putnam, in her testimony
against the Rev. Mr. Burroughs, said that one evening the apparition of
a minister came to her and asked her to write her name in the devil's
book. Then came the forms of two women in winding sheets, and looked
angrily upon the minister and scolded him until he was fain to vanish
away. Then the women told Ann that they were the ghosts of Mr.
Burroughs' first and second wives whom he had murdered.]
Did Longfellow, after a critical study of the original evidence and
records, truly interpret Mather's views, in his dialogue with Hathorne?
MATHER:
"Remember this, That as a sparrow falls not to the ground
Without the will of God, so not a Devil
Can come down from the air without his leave.
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