[60] It does not appear to have occurred to the Doctor that a good Spirit might have been the Author of such darting Operations.
[61] It would have been gratifying to at least some of the Author's Readers if he had informed them how, where and when he became possessed of the Art of Sorcery, and as he acknowledges having the Art, how he escaped Prosecution. This is parum claris lucem dare indeed.
[62] This Hopefulness occasionally breaks out. It ill agrees with the doleful Tone often expressed, in various Parts of the Doctor's Writings—that "New England is on the broad Road to Perdition."
[63] This has Reference to the Favor expected at the Hands of William and Mary. The new Charter granted by them was received in Boston on the 14th of May, 1692. Sir Wm. Phipps came over at the same Time and assumed the Office of Governor.
[64] William Stoughton, afterwards Governor.
[65] These were to be 28 in Number. As the early Histories do not name them I copy them here from the Charter as printed in 1726: "Simon Broadstreet, John Richards, Nathanael Saltonstall, Wait Winthrop, John Philips, James Russell, Samuel Sewall, Samuel Appleton, Bartholomew Gedney, John Hathorn, Elisha Hutchinson, Robert Pike, Jonathan Corwin, John Jolliffe, Adam Winthrop, Richard Middlecot, John Foster, Peter Sergeant, Joseph Lynd, Samuel Heyman, Stephen Mason, Thomas Hinkley, William Bradford, John Walley, Barnabas Lothrop, Job Alcot, Samuel Daniel, and Silvanus Davis, Esquires." Isaac Addington was appointed Secretary. Nearly all noticed in Allen's Amer. Biog. Dict.
[66] The horrible Picture drawn in this long Paragraph has Reference especially to the still deep Current among the few who did not believe in Witchcraft, or at least who did not believe in extreme Measures against those accused of it.
[67] Strange Source, indeed, whence to hear a Plea for Charity!
[68] Did this Fact suggest the Idea of the Happy Family to the Keepers of modern Menageries? The Freshet is not mentioned by the Chroniclers.
[69] There was a Proposition, it is said, to send to England to engage one Matthew Hopkins, a professed Witch-finder, then in high repute in that Country. See History and Antiquities of Boston, 309.