He was, moreover, esteemed by the women as a man of great erudition, for he had read several books quite through, and was a perfect master of Cotton Mather's "History of New England Witchcraft," in which, by the way, he most firmly and potently believed.
It was often his delight, after his school was dismissed in the afternoon, to stretch himself on the rich bed of clover bordering the little brook that whimpered by his school-house, and there con over old Mather's direful tales, until the gathering dusk of evening made the printed page a mere mist before his eyes.
He repaid them in kind with large extracts from his invaluable author, Cotton Mather, and added many marvellous events that had taken place in his native State of Connecticut, and fearful sights which he had seen in his nightly walks about Sleepy Hollow.
As to the books and furniture of the schoolhouse, they belonged to the community, excepting Cotton Mather's History of Witchcraft, a New England Almanac, and book of dreams and fortune-telling; in which last was a sheet of foolscap much scribbled and blotted in several fruitless attempts to make a copy of verses in honor of the heiress of Van Tassel.
Cotton
Mather, a very learned and eminent clergyman, believed that the whole country was full of witches and wizards, who had given up their hopes of heaven, and signed a covenant with the evil one.
At his right hand rode Edward Randolph, our arch-enemy, that "blasted wretch," as Cotton
Mather calls him, who achieved the downfall of our ancient government, and was followed with a sensible curse, through life and to his grave.
His Santa Cruz boat's-crew escaped in the whale-boat to Choiseul, and
Mather, in the Lily, sailed over to Marovo.
Even political power -- as in the case of Increase
Mather -- was within the grasp of a successful priest.
Wal, fewd dan y' de-ooty bawmz a
mather should, eed now bettern to spawl a pore gel's flahrzn than ran awy atbaht pyin.
This old reprobate was one of the sufferers when Cotton
Mather, and his brother ministers, and the learned judges, and other wise men, and Sir William Phipps, the sagacious governor, made such laudable efforts to weaken the great enemy of souls, by sending a multitude of his adherents up the rocky pathway of Gallows Hill.
The pioneers of
Mather's--More Than a Cafe figured out early on that customers were coming for more than the great food and programs--they were coming for the experience.
Nicholas Landmark in Chester on Saturday to celebrate the first anniversary of the business and pay homage to early Chester businessman and political leader Thomas
Mather.