[131] The Time of Henry III was from 1574 to 1589.
[132] Those who are familiar with the Works of Erasmus may verify the Story. He may have been, and probably was, like the Rest of the learned World, a Believer in such Nonsense. The great Poet who has contributed to his Immortality in the following Lines may not have heard of the above Story:
"At length Erasmus, that great injured Name,
(The Glory of the Priesthood and the Shame!)
Stem'd the wild Torrent of a bar'brous Age,
And drove those holy Vandals off the Stage."
[133] There was about this Time a Society established in England expressly for the "Reformation of Manners," and a small octavo Volume was issued under its Auspices, setting forth the Objects and Necessity for such a Society. In it the Plantations are remembered.
[134] The Author does not seem to remember that he has elsewhere said with much Emphasis, that "this remote Part of the Earth" was the Devil's own Territory, that he was undisturbed here before the white People came and that he did not expect to be disturbed here.
[135] This was Mr. Samuel Clarke or Clark (as he indifferently wrote his own Surname), and his Father's Name was Hugh Clark. The Life spoken of is in the Martyrology by the Son, a Work not now often referred to, but one abounding with interesting and curious biographical and historical Information, having intimate Connection with the Founders of New England, and containing a good deal concerning many of them. See his Lives, appended to the Martyrology, Page 127, et seq. Folio, 1677. I have often had Occasion to refer to his various Works.
[136] There appears to have been some Mystery about that Perfume of Brimstone, if indeed "Metaphor" be left out of the Account, as the Author says it is to be. One might be led to suppose that the Circumstance which happened at Oxford in 1577, was of the Character of that in the Text, as alluded to by Hutchinson, in his Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft, Page 38, but on Reference to his Authority, a Parallel is hardly warranted. The Story will be found fully related in Camden's Reign of Elizabeth, 237, Ed. 1675.