You may ... make a little recreation of poetry, in the midst of your painful studies. Nevertheless, I cannot but advise you. Withhold thy throat from thirst. Be not so set upon poetry, as to be always poring on the passionate and measured pages. ... let not the Circean cup intoxicate you.

Cotton Mather

Categorized in : Littles May Passionate

That there is a Devil is a thing doubted by none but such as are under the influence of the Devil. For any to deny the being of a Devil must be from ignorance or profaneness worse than diabolical.

Cotton Mather

devil scary ignorance

Our opportunities to do good are our talents.

Cotton Mather

second-chance compassion opportunity

Ah, children, be afraid of going prayerless to bed, lest the Devil be your bedfellow.

Cotton Mather

devil bed children

The Word of God must be Read and Heard with Diligence that so you may arrive to the Knowledge that is needful for you.

Cotton Mather

diligence heard may

You are young and have the world before you; stoop as you go through it, and you will miss many hard bumps.

Cotton Mather

missing bumps world

Wilderness is a temporary condition through which we are passing to the Promised Land.

Cotton Mather

wilderness passing land

Religion brought forth Prosperity, and the daughter destroyed the mother.

Cotton Mather

prosperity daughter mother

What Must I Do to Be Saved? It is impossible to ask a more weighty Question! It is deplorable that we hear it asked with no more Frequency, with nor more Agony.

Cotton Mather

agony saved impossible

Be not so set upon poetry, as to be always poring on the passionate and measured pages. Let not what should be sauce, rather than food for you, engross all your application. Beware of a boundless and sickly appetite for the reading of poems which the nation now swarms withal; and let not the Circaen cup intoxicate you. But especially preserve the chastity of your soul from the dangers you may incur, by a conversation with muses no better than harlots.

Cotton Mather

cups reading soul

Ah! destructive Ignorance, what shall be done to chase thee out of the World!

Cotton Mather

done ignorance world

Is this dying? Is this all? Is this what I feared when I prayed against a hard death? Oh, I can bear this! I can bear this!

Cotton Mather

dying bears war

That there is a Devil, is a thing doubted by none but such as are under the influences of the Devil.

Cotton Mather

doubted devil influence

Ye monsters of the bubbling deep, Your Maker's praises spout; Up from the sands ye codlings peep, And wag your tails about.

Cotton Mather

fishing sea lakes

History is the story of events, with praise or blame.

Cotton Mather

events stories history

Families are the Nurseries of all Societies; and the First combinations of mankind.

Cotton Mather

combination nurse firsts

Ignorance is the Mother not of Devotion, but of Heresy.

Cotton Mather

ignorance devotion mother

What was it that obliged Jerome to write his book, Concerning Illustrious Men? It was the common reproach of old cast upon Christians, 'That they were all poor, weak, unlearned men.' The sort of men sometime called 'Puritans' in the English nation have been reproached with the same character. . . But when truth shall have liberty to speak, it will be known that Christianity never was more expressed unto the life than in the lives of the persons that have been thus reproached.

Cotton Mather

christian writing book

Charity ... is kind, it is not easily provok'd, it thinks no evil, it believes all things, hopes all things.

Cotton Mather

evil believe thinking

Instead of exhorting you to augment your charity, I will rather utter an exhortation, or at least a supplication, that you may not abuse your charity by misapplying it.

Cotton Mather

abuse charity may

A Good School deserves to be call'd, the very Salt of the Town, that hath it.

Cotton Mather

salt aggravation school