were men of intense pietyeverything they did, they attempted to do in the service of Godthey succeeded at times in transcending the limits of the emerging lay culture of their time. Thus they did more than "respond"; they did more than "accommodate" their creed to the American environment. Cotton Mather went farther along this road than his father and grandfather, and in the process gave away much in the synthesis of piety and intellect that theyand heexpressed. Indeed, Cotton Mather's piety threatened to destroy his reasonhe died before it did. He is, nonetheless, I think, the most admirable of the three because he was the most daring (and the most driven). Before he died he had refashioned, with the aid of his father, much in Puritanism ecclesiastical theory, the psychology of religious experience, covenant preaching, and conceptions of Christian history and prophecy. He had failed to reconcile science and faith, but he had begun to grasp some of the difficulties of their reconciliation. He had also failed to persuade his society to reform itself, surely the easiest of his failures to understand. In success and failure he had lived up the best standards of his family.
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I have been moved by this story because though all three Mathers had unattractive sides, they also had intellectualand moralcourage. Their livesand the lives of Puritan intellectuals generallyare not the stories of those sad men who find ways of giving in while they persuade themselves that they are holding fast to their principles. But perhaps my own feeling should not be discussed; it is probably clear in my work, though I hope it is not obtrusive.
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I have no wish, however, to repress my feelings of gratitude to those who helped me in my work. Among them, I wish to thank the University of California Library, Berkeley, where I did most of my research; the American Antiquarian Society, for providing microfilm of manuscripts in its possession; the Massachusetts Historical Society, for the same service and for guidance in using its holdings; the Yale University Library, for aiding my work there and for providing film. (The Henry Martyn Dexter collection of Puritan tracts at Yale proved especially valuable to me.) The Henry E. Huntington Library also furnished film of several rare tracts in its collections.
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The Mathers, I am certain, would regard uneasily the amount of financial aid that I have received in the course of my work.
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