Some lost works of Cotton Mather / by George Lyman Kittredge.
- George Lyman Kittredge
- Date:
- 1912
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Some lost works of Cotton Mather / by George Lyman Kittredge. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
16/74 page 424
![Douglass, according to Dr. Green, took up his abode in Boston in 1718.1 Yet here is Mather, in 1716, well acquainted with the letter of Timonius (in No. 339), though not with that of Pylarinus (in No. 347). How are we to reconcile the clashing dates? The key to the apparent contradiction may be found in the fact that Douglass settled in Boston twice, first temporarily, and afterwards for good. His dual venture is mentioned in Isaac Greenwood's anonymous Dialogue between Academicus; and Sawny & Mundungus (1722). Sawny (Douglass) says to Academicus (Greenwood): Dr. MATHER, and Parson COL- MAN too, have recommended me to the Esteem of the People.2 And Academicus retorts: Yes, Sawny, you came recommended to them, and they were so Credulous (as you call them) to hope well, and speak well of you. But you were so well known, they could procure you little practise, and accordingly you took a Voyage, but soon returned; where at last by their means you got a little Credit. However, but little notice was taken of you, till your Opposition to Inoculation, made you famous.3 To confirm Greenwood's story we have, (1) the opening sen- tence of an unpublished letter from Douglass to Dr. Alexander Stuart, September 25, 1721 (I did my self the honour to writte to you twice or thrice since my last arrival in this place),4 and (2) a passage in a letter from Douglass to Cadwallader Colden, February 20, 1721: Colonel Burgess' design of coming over Governor, was the in- ducement that brought me hither from the prospect of very good business in Bristol; notwithstanding of that disappointment I have resolved to fix here, and ramble no more. I can live handsomely by the incomes of my Practice, and save some small matter.6 the same, An Historical Account of the Small-Pox Inoculated (London, 1726), 1-4 (2d ed., Boston, 1730, 1-3); [Isaac Greenwood,] A Friendly Debate; or, A Dialogue between Academicus; and Sawny &• Mundungus (Boston, 1722), 4-5, 9-10. The Friendly Debate was certainly inspired by Mather and probably in part written by him. 1 2 Proceedings, 1. 44 (cf. his History of Medicine in Massachusetts, 1881, 64). 2 A Friendly Debate, 19. s P. 20. • See p. 423, note 5, supra. B 4 Collections, n. 164. Bullock (266) utilizes this passage, but he ignores the significant mention of Burges's design, which suggests rather 1715 than 1716 (see p. 425, note 2, infra).](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21017633_0016.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
