[139] This Judgment has been sustained by Posterity. Phips's Hands were tied. He could not have done differently, had he had the Knowledge and Disposition, without giving offence to President Mather, who had secured his Advancement.
[140] To this rather mild and inoffensive remark of the Author, Mr. Mather replies: "The last Effort of his [Calef's] Malice is a Postscript against the Life of Sir William Phips, against whose Memory, why any whose Throats are an open Sepulchre, should be so monstrously envious, that like Jackalls, they can't let him rest quietly in his Sepulchre, good Men can't imagine any Reason but the third Chapter of Genesis."—Some Few Remarks, &c. 47.
[141] "I have endured more than a little from some sort of Men, for my writing the Life of Sir William Phips, and speaking well of him, without either doing or speaking ill against any one good Man under the whole Heavens, in the whole Composure. It seems that I must now write an Apology, for that Book: for which I have no Confession to make, but, That I don't wish one Line of it unwritten."—Ibid, 47-8.
[142] It must be allowed that the Doctor was a little unfortunate in his Choice of a Hero by which to measure his own.
[143] The "three venerable Persons" were "Nath. Mather, John Howe and Matthew Mead." The first was the Uncle to Dr. Cotton Mather, then a Minister in Dublin, where he died a few Months later. Howe and Mead are too well known to require a notice here.
[144] To this Dr. Mather answers: "When mine Adversaries had, with a concocted Malice, done all they could, they thought at least they had found one Passage wherein they might impeach my Veracity. I had said, that before Quebeck, Sir William lay within Pistol Shot of the Enemies Cannon, and that his Ship was shot through, in an hundred Places, and that it was shot through with Four and Twenty Pounders. (Tis a gross Hardship for any to make my Meaning as if all the shot had been so.) And now they fall to Tragical Exclamattons; they think Four and Twenty Pounders to be too small Dimensions for the Clamors they must batter me withal.... I wrote no more than the very Words which I find in a Journal of the Expedition to Qcebec.... Calef himself has lately owned, that he verily believes I did so."—Some Few Remarks, &c. 51-2.
[145] After the Doctor had spoken of being "battered with Clamors," he triumphantly Exclaims—"But hold Robin, [Mr. Calef's Christian Name being Robert] I am not so soon shot through; and the Statue, as I told thee, has knock'd out thy Brains!"—Ibid, Page 52. His Life of Phips he calls a Statue.
[146] The harsh and ungovernable Temper of the Governor was a Matter of Notoriety in his Time. See Life of Phips in the Magnalia, B. ii, Page 72, &c.
[147] "It is not worth our while to take Notice of every thing this Calf sayes, 'tis often so impertinent; however, we will lay open one thing more. He says that Mr. Mather procured a Charter for Sir William to be Governor, and himself established President of the Colledge. Can there be greater Nonsense mixed with Malice! How could that be, when Mr. Mather had been President of the Colledge ten Years before Sir William came to be Governor?" This is a very shallow Attempt to impeach, by Hypercriticism, the Truth of Mr. Calef's Statement. Everybody knew the fact that Dr. I. Mather was President of the College. Mr. Calef's Meaning is plain enough, namely, that Mr. Mather's Solicitude was about keeping his Office of President.
[148] "It is to be confessed and bewailed, that many Inhabitants of New England, and young People especially, had been led away with little Sorceries, wherein they did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God; they would often cure Hurts with Spells, and practice detestable Conjurations with Sieves, and Keyes, and Pease, and Nails, and Horse-shoes, and other Implements to learn the Things for which they had a forbidden and impious Curiosity. Wretched Books had stolen into the Land, wherein Fools were instructed how to become able Fortune-tellers."—Life of Sir W. Phips. See Magnalia, B. ii, 60. Some twenty Years later the Author's Ideas had undergone a slight Change. See Remarkables, 161, et seq.