C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Increase Mather (1639–1723)
Mather, Increase. A noted American Congregational divine, educator, and scholar, father of Cotton; born at Dorchester, MA, June 21, 1639; died at Boston, Aug. 23, 1723. Graduating from Harvard at seventeen, he went to England; graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, at nineteen; settled in England as a pastor, but at the Restoration refused to conform and returned to Boston; was president of Harvard 1685–1701; visited England again to convey a vote of thanks to James II. (1688). Of his ninety-two publications, one of the most curious was ‘An Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences’ (1684; London, 1856). It is a collection of remarkable happenings,—sea-deliverances, accidents, witchcraft, apparitions, etc.