Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
In Praise of the Renowned Cotton Mather
By Benjamin Tompson (1642–1714)[Prefixed to the “Magnalia Christi Americana.” 1702.]
I
To raise his country’s fathers’ ashes urn’d?
Elisha’s dust, life to the dead imparts;
This prophet, by his more familiar arts,
Unseals our heroes’ tombs, and gives them air;
They rise, they walk, they talk, look wondrous fair;
Each of them in an orb of light doth shine,
In liveries of glory most divine.
When ancient names I in thy pages met,
Like gems on Aaron’s costly breastplate set,
Methinks heaven’s open, while great saints descend,
To wreathe the brows by which their acts were penn’d.