Increase Mather, 1639-1723.

The father's eloquence was more than equaled by the son's; his Puritan zeal, his love of learning, his industry in the production of pamphlets and books, brought the name of Increase Mather into greater prominence than Richard Mather's vigorous quill had won. For fifty-nine years, he served as minister. He added some ninety titles to the list of colonial publications -- the majority representing discourses prepared for his congregation. Perhaps the only one of his books sufficiently vitalized by human interest to be noted to-day is “An Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences” (1684), in which the piety, pedantry, and superstition characteristic of the religious scholar in that age are curiously mingled. This collection of strange visitations and marvelous deliverances was designed for the pious entertainment and spiritual comfort of its readers. It is one of the most interesting of these early American classics; and, like so many of the works previously cited, affords a vivid glimpse into the Puritan mind.

Cotton Mather, 1663-1728.

All the accumulated piety and learning of his distinguished ancestry seemed to reside in this extraordinary man. His intellectuality was abnormal. He had read Homer at ten years of age, and at eleven was admitted to Harvard College. He took his first degree at fifteen; at seventeen he began to preach, and soon afterward became associate with his father. In his religious life, he became abnormal also; at times he lay for hours on the floor of his study in spiritual agony. His speech was full of pious ejaculations. His “Memorable Providence Relating to Witchcrafts” (1691) and “Wonders of the Invisible World” (1693) contain curious records and much interesting matter relative to satanic possession; ideas which were firmly believed at that time, not only in New England, but very generally throughout Europe also.

The most remarkable thing about Cotton Mather's literary career is the number of his writings; four hundred or more titles are included in the catalogue of his works. Many of these are fantastic treatises, grotesquely named, representing the vagaries of Puritan thought; many are sermons delivered on special occasions; three or four are interesting little books.

One, familiarly known under the title “Essays to do Good”, was cordially praised by Benjamin Franklin, who declared to the son of the writer that as a youth he had derived great benefit and inspiration from the book. But the great work of Cotton Mather's prolific industry was the famous “Magnalia Christi Americana”, or “Ecclesiastical History of New England, from its First Planting in the Year 1620, unto the Year of our Lord, 1698”. Something over a thousand pages of closely printed matter is included in the seven parts or volumes of this monumental work. The planting of New England and its growth, the lives of its governors and its famous divines, a history of Harvard College, the organization of the churches, "a faithful record of many wonderful Providences” -- such is the scope of the “Magnalia Christi Americana”, or “The Great Acts of Christ in America”.

The style is pedantic and artificial, but the spirit of the writer is perfectly sincere. Now and then the narrative grows simple and strong. There is a frequent use of Old Testament phraseology which indicates a clear perception of its poetical value.

The “Magnalia”, completed in December, 1697, was published at London in 1702. It stands fitly enough as the last important literary effort of seventeenth-century colonial Puritanism. Already there were indications of a change in the current of New England religious life. The old extreme Puritan doctrines were in a decline; and Mather's huge volume was a final utterance in defense of the fathers' faith. Not only had there come a change in the form of thought; in the style of literary expression, the change was as notable. English writers no longer followed the models of the later Elizabethan essayists; their fantastic phraseology had been displaced by the direct and forceful diction of Bunyan and Dryden; the easy, natural style of Addison, Steele, and Swift was giving a new charm to English prose. Cotton Mather lived throughout the first quarter of the eighteenth century; but in all essential respects, in personality and in utterance, he belongs wholly to the seventeenth. The consummate product of the old Puritan theology, he stands as the last important representative of the type in American literature.

PURITAN POETRY IN NEW ENGLAND: BAY PSALM BOOK, ANNE BRADSTREET, MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH

Early Puritan Poetry

The Puritans were not susceptible to the charms of poetry. The strenuous life of the pioneer left little time for cultivating any of the arts, and the spirit of New England was too serious and too stern to permit indulgence in what was merely pleasant or beautiful. Even after the first critical years of danger and struggle were past, the intellectual life of the people was bounded by the narrow limits of religious discussion and theological debate. That the Puritan was not without imagination, however, is abundantly proved by the forceful figures and impassioned rhetoric of the prose writers. Moreover, some of these same men did occasionally slip into rhyme. William Wood has been quoted. Even John Cotton was the author of verses, halting and rough-hewn, and full of the queer conceits which were common at the time. It is significant that this pious man wrote much of his verse in the pages of the household almanac, where it remained hidden from the public eye.

Much ingenuity was expended upon epitaphs and obituary tributes -- so solemn a theme as that of death justifying poetical expression. If there were any opportunity to play upon the name of the deceased, the opportunity was gracefully seized.