March 19, 1663

Boston, Massachusetts

February 13, 1728

Boston, Massachusetts

Clergyman and scientist

Portrait: Cotton Mather. Reproduced by permission of The Library of Congress.

"There is not a Fly but would confute [refute conclusively] an Atheist."

Cotton Mather.

Cotton Mather's life and work illustrate two sides of early American scientific thinking. As a Congregational (Puritan) clergyman and a firm believer in divine revelation (the word of God) and miracles, Mather accepted such unscientific notions as witchcraft. He supported the Salem witch trials, although he later changed his position. The author of hundreds of books and sermons, he ranks highly among the early American theologians. Yet he was also a leading scientist and only one of two colonial Americans to be elected to the Royal Society of London, a prestigious scientific organization in England. (Benjamin Franklin was the other American member; see entry.) Reconciling his interest in science with his religious...