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LINEARALGEBRA
Pure & Applied
July 25, 2013 17:28 WSPC - Proceedings Trim Size: 9.75in x 6.5in icmp12-master

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 LINEARALGEBRA
Pure &Applied

Edgar G. Goodaire
Memorial University, Canada

11- World Scientific

NEW JERSEY • LONDON ·SINGAPORE • BEIJING • SHANGHAI • HONG KONG ·TAIPEI • CHENNAI
Published by
World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
5 Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224
USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601
UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Goodaire, Edgar G.
Linear algebra :pure & applied I by Edgar G Goodaire (Memorial University, Canada).
pages em
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-981-4508-36-0 (hardcover: alk. paper)-- ISBN 978-981-4508-37-7 (softcover: alk. paper)
1. Algebras, Linear--Textbooks. I. Title.
QA184.2.G67 2014
512' .5--dc23
2013022750

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Copyright@ 2014 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof. may Mt be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrit!Val system now known
or to be invented, without wrinen permission from the Publisher.

For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright Clearance Center,
Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. In this case permission to photocopy is not required from
the publisher.

Printed in SingapOIC by World Scientific Printers.

Contents

Preface ix

To My Students xiii

Suggested Lecture Schedule XV

1 Euclidean n·Space 1
1.1 Vectors and Arrows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Length and Direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.3 lines, Planes and the Cross Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
1.4 Projections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
1. 5 linear Dependence and Independence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Review Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

2 Matrices and linear Equations 93

2.1 The Algebra of Matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
2.2 Application: Generating Codes with Matrices . . . . . . . . . . . 121
2.3 Inverse and Transpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
2.4 Systems of linear Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
2.5 Application: Electric Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
2.6 Homogeneous Systems; linear Independence . . . . . . . . . . . 177
2.7 Elementary Matrices and LU Factorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
2.8 LDU Factorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
2.9 More on the Inverse of a Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Review Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

3 Determinants, Eigenvalues, Eigenvectors 23 7

3.1 The Determinant of a Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
3.2 Properties of Determinants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

v
vi Contents

3.3 Application: Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

3.4 Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
3.5 Similarity and Diagonalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
3.6 Application: Linear Recurrence Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
3.7 Application: Markov Chains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Review Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

4 Vector Spaces 331

4.1 The Theory of Linear Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
4.2 Subspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
4.3 Basis and Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
4.4 Finite Dimensional Vector Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
4.5 One-sided Inverses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
Review Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

5 linear Transformations 401

5.1 Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
5.2 Matrix Multiplication Revisited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
5.3 Application: Computer Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
5.4 The Matrices of a Linear Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
5.5 Changing Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
Review Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458

6 Orthogonality 461
6.1 Projection Matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
6.2 Application: Data Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480
6.3 The Gram-Schmidt Algorithm and QR Factorization . . . . . . . 486
6.4 Orthogonal Subspaces and Complements . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
6.5 The Pseudoinverse of a Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
Review Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 5

7 The Specttal Theorem 541

7.1 Complex Vectors and Matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541
7.2 Unitary Diagonalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
7.3 Real Symmetric Matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570
7.4 Application: Quadratic Forms, Conic Sections . . . . . . . . . . . 576
7.5 The Singular Value Decomposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
Review Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589
Contents vii

Appendix A: Complex Numbers 593

Appendix B: Show and Prove 607

Appendix C: Things I Must Remember 615

Answers to True/False and BB Exercises 621

Glossary 693

Index 711
July 25, 2013 17:28 WSPC - Proceedings Trim Size: 9.75in x 6.5in icmp12-master

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Preface

This book had its genesis in the last century and has been used at Memorial
University in St. John's, Newfoundland in one form or another for at least
fifteen years. I am grateful to World Scientific Publishing Co. for making the
latest edition widely available.
At many universities, many students take a course in linear algebra which
should more properly be called "matrix algebra" because the content is pri-
marily matrix manipulation and solving linear systems. Like calculus, the
first course in linear algebra is often a course without proofs. To be suc-
cessful, a student simply matches examples to homework with almost no
reading and little real understanding.
My goal here is to use an intrinsically interesting subject to show students
that there is more to mathematics than numbers, and that reading to under-
stand while challenging, can also be very satisfying. A secondary purpose is
to raise the level of the typical Unear Algebra I course so that the transition
to Unear Algebra IT is not as clifficult as it has become.
The presentation in this text is frequently interrupted by "Reading Checks,"
little questions a student can use to see if she really does understand the
point just made and which are intended to promote active reading. Every sec-
tion in this book concludes with answers to these Reading Checks followed
by some "True/False" questions that test definitions and concepts, not dex-
terity with numbers or buttons. Every exerdse set contains some "Critical
Reading" exerdses which include problems some of which are harder, yes,
but also some that can be solved quite easily if understood. Each chapter
concludes with review exercises and a list of key words and concepts that
have been introduced in that chapter.
There are several reasons for including "pure and applied" in the title. While
a pure mathematician myself and a person who, as a student, loved the ab-
stract vector space/linear transformation approach to linear algebra, I think
such treatment is less successful today because it requires more maturity
than the typical sophomore possesses. This book is mainly about Euclidean
n-space and matrices. Essentially every vector space is a subspace of Rn.
Other standard examples, like polynomials and matrices, are mentioned,
but not emphasized. In my opinion, when students are thoroughly comfort-
able with Rn, they have little trouble transferring concepts to general vector
spaces. Moreover, most theorems in elementary linear algebra have proofs

ix
X Preface

that are independent of the vector space, so why not let the student remain
in his comfort zone. The emphasis on matrices and matrix factorizations,
the recurring themes of projections and codes, and shorter sections on sub-
jects like fadal recognition, Markov chains, graphs and electric circuits give
this book a genuinely applied flavour.
This is a book which emphasizes "pure" mathematics, understanding and
rigour. Virtually nothing is stated without justification, and a large number
of exercises are of the "show or prove" variety. Since students tend to find
such exercises difficult, I have included an appendix called "Show and Prove"
designed to help students write a mathematical proof, and another, "Things
I Must Remember," which has essentially been written by my students over
the years. So despite its emphasis on the concrete, this book would also
serve well to support the "introduction to proof" transition course that is
now a part of many degree programs.

Organization, Philosophy, Style

Many linear algebra texts begin with linear equations and matrices, which
students enjoy, but which suggest incorrectly that linear algebra is about
computation. This book begins with vectors, primarily in R2 and R3 , so that
I can introduce in a concrete setting some key concepts-linear combination,
span, linear dependence and independence-long before the "invariance of
dimension" theorem, which is often the point where students dedde that
linear algebra is hard. The idea of a plane being "spanned" by two vectors is
not hard for beginning students; neither is the idea of "linear combination"
or the fact that linear dependence of three or more vectors means that the
vectors all lie in a plane. That Ax is a linear combination of the columns of
A, surely one of the most useful ideas of linear algebra, is introduced early in
Chapter 2 and used time and time again. Long before we introduce abstract
vector spaces, all the terminology and techniques of proof have been at play
for some time. A solid early treatment of linear independence and spanning
sets in the concrete setting of Rn alerts students to the fact that this course
is not about computation; indeed, serious thought and critical reading will
be required to succeed. Many exercise sets contain questions that can be
answered very briefly, if understood. There are some writing exercises too,
marked by the symbol~, that ask for brief explanations or, sometimes,
biographical information.
In some respects, this book is at a higher level than its competitors. The
theory behind Markov chains many students will find difficult. Topics like
the pseudoinverse and singular value decomposition and even complex ma-
trices and the spectral theorem are tough for most second year students. On
the other hand, versions of this book have been well received and proven to
work for students with average to good mathematics backgrounds.
Technology goes almost unmentioned in this book. While a great fan of
Preface xi

technology myself, and after delivering courses via MAPLE worksheets, for
instance, I have formed the opinion that teaching students how to use sophis-
ticated calculators or computer algebra packages is more time-consuming
and distracting than useful.
I try to introduce new concepts only when they are needed, not just for
their own sake. linear systems are solved by transforming to row echelon
form, not reduced row echelon form, the latter idea introduced where it is of
more benefit, in the calculation of the inverse of a matrix. The notion of the
"transpose" of a matrix is introduced in the section on matrix multiplication
because it is important for students to know that the dot product u · v of two
column vectors is the matrix product uTv. Symmetric matrices, whose LDU
factorizations are so easy, appear for the first time in the section on LDU
factorization, and reappear as part of the characterization of a projection
matrix.
There can be few aspects of linear algebra more useful, practical, and inter-
esting than eigenvectors, eigenvalues and diagonalizability. Moreover, these
topics provide an excellent opportunity to discuss linear independence in a
nonthreatening manner, so these ideas appear early and in a more serious
vein later.
Many readers and reviewers have commented favourably on my writing which,
while seemingly less formal than that of other authors is most assuredly not
lacking in rigour. There is far less emphasis on computation and far more
on mathematical reasoning in this book. I repeatedly ask students to explain
"why." Already in Chapter 1, students are asked to show that two vectors
are linearly dependent if and only if one is a scalar multiple of another. The
concept of matrix inverse appears early, as well as its utility in solving ma-
trix equations, several sections before we discuss how actually to find the
inverse of a matrix. The fact that students find the first chapter quite diffi-
cult is evidence to me that I have succeeded in emphasizing the importance
of asking "Why", discovering "Why, • and then clearly communicating the
reason ''Why."

A Course Outline
To achieve economy within the first three chapters, I omit Section 2.8 on
LDU factorization {but never the section on LU) and discuss only a few of the
properties of determinants (Section 3.2), most of which are used primarily
to assist in finding determinants, a task few people accomplish by hand any
more.
linear Algebra II is essentially Chapters 4 through 7, but there is more mate-
rial here than I can ever manage in a 36-lecture semester. Thus I sometimes
discuss the matrix of a linear transformation only with respect to standard
bases, omitting Sections 5.4 and 5.5. The material of Section 6.1, which is
centred around the best least squares solution to over-determined linear
xii Preface

systems, may be nontraditional, but try to resist the temptation to omit it.
Many exercises on this topic have numerical answers (which students like!),
there are lots of calculations, but lots of theory to be reinforced too. For
example, the fact that the formula P = A(ATA)- 1AT works only for matri-
ces with linearly independent columns provides another opportunity to talk
about linear independence.
To do proper justice to Chapter 7-especially the unitary diagonalization of
Hermitian matrices and some (remedial?) work on complex numbers and
matrices-! have to cut Sections 6.4 and 6.5 on orthogonal subspaces and
the pseudoinverse. When I include Section 6.5 on the pseudoinverse (a non-
standard topic that students like), I bypass the first two sections of Chapter 7
and head directly to the orthogonal diagonalization of real symmetric ma-
trices in Section 7.3 after a brief review of the concepts of eigenvalue and
eigenvector.

Acknowledgements
Over the years, I have been helped and encouraged by a number of col-
leagues, including Ivan Booth, Peter Booth, Hermann Brunner, John Burry,
Clayton Halfyard, Mikhail Kotchetov, George Miminis, Michael Parmenter
and Donald Rideout. In particular, Misha Kotchetov and my friend of many
years, Michael Parmenter, one of the best proof readers I have ever known,
made numerous suggestions that improved this work immeasurably.
Many students have also helped me to improve this book and to make the
subject easier for those that follow. In particular, I want to acknowledge
the enthusiasm and assistance of Gerrard Barrington, Shauna Gammon, Ian
Gillespie, Philip Johnson and Melanie Ryan.

I hope you discover that this book provides a refreshing approach to an old
familiar topic with lots of "neat ideas" that you perhaps have not noticed or
fully appreciated previously. If you have adopted this book at your institu-
tion for one of your courses, I am very pleased, but also most genuine in my
request for your opinions, comments and suggestions.

Edgar G. Goodaire
[email protected]
St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada
To My Students

From aviation to the design of cellular phone networks, from data compres-
sion (CDs and jpegs) to data mining and oil and gas exploration, from com-
puter graphics to Google, linear algebra is everywhere and indispensable.
With relatively little emphasis on sets and functions, linear algebra is "dif-
ferent." Most students find it enjoyable and a welcome change from calculus.
Be careful though. The answers to most calculus problems are numerical and
easily confirmed with a text message. The answers to many problems in this
book are not numerical, however, and require explanations as to why things
are as they are. So let me begin this note to you with a word of caution: this
is a book you must read
For many of you, linear algebra will be the first course where many exercises
ask you to explain, to answer why or how. It can be a shock to discover
that there are mathematics courses (in fact, most of those above first year)
where words are more important than numbers. Gone are the days when the
solution to a homework problem lies in finding an identical worked example
in the text. Homework is now going to require some critical thinking!
Many years ago, when this book existed just as course notes, a student came
into my office one day to ask for help with a homework question. When this
happens with a book of which I am an author, I am always eager to discover
whether or not I have laid the proper groundwork so that the average stu-
dent could be expected to make a reasonable attempt at an exercise. From
your point of view, a homework exercise should be very similar to a worked
example. Right? In the instance I am recalling, I went through the section
with my student page by page until we found such an example. In fact, we
found precisely the question I had assigned, with the complete solution laid
out as an example that I had forgotten to delete when I moved it to the ex-
ercises! The student felt a little sheepish while I was completely shocked to
be reminded, once again, that some students don't read their textbooks.
It is always tempting to start a homework problem right away, without
preparing yourself first, but this approach isn't going to work very well here.
You will find it imperative to read a section from start to finish before at-
tempting the exercises at the end of a section. And please do more than
just glance at the list of "key wordsft that appears at the end of each chapter.
Look carefully at each word. Are you sure you know what it means? Can you
produce an example or a sentence that would convince your teacher that you

xiii
xiv To My Students

understand what the word means? If you can't, it's for sure you won't be
able to answer a question where that word is used. Go to the back of the
book, to a glossary where every technical term is defined and accompanied
by examples. If you are not sure what is required when asked to prove some-
thing or to show that something is true, read the appendix "Show and Prove"
that is also at the back. (You will find there the solutions to several exercises
from the text itself!)
In another appendix, entitled "Things I Must Remember," I have included
many important ideas that my students have helped me to collect over the
years. You will also find there some ideas that are often just what you need
to solve a homework problem.
I hope that you like my writing style, that you discover you like linear algebra,
and that you soon surprise yourself with your ability to write a good clear
mathematical proof. I hope that you do well in your linear algebra courses
and all those other courses where linear algebra plays an important role. Let
me know what you think of this book. I like receiving comments-good, bad
and ugly-from anyone.

Edgar G. Goodaire
[email protected]
St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada
Suggested Lecture Schedule

1 The Geometry of the Plane and 3-space 11 Lectures

1.1 Vectors and Arrows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Length and Direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 lines, Planes and the Cross Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.4 Projections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1. 5 linear Dependence and Independence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2 Matrices and linear Equations 18 Lectures

2.1 The Algebra of Matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2~
2.2 Application: Generating Codes with Matrices . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2.3 Inverse and Transpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2~
2.4 Systems of Linear Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.5 Application: Electric Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2.6 Homogeneous Systems; Linear Independence . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.7 Elementary Matrices and LU Factorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.8 LDU Factorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.9 More on the Inverse of a Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

3 Determinants, Eigenvalues, Eigenvectors 11 Lectures

3.1 The Determinant of a Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.2 Properties of Determinants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.3 Application: Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
3.4 Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1~
3.5 Similarity and Diagonalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1~
3.6 Application: Linear Recurrence Relations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
3.7 Application: Markov Chains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

XV
xvi Lecture Schedule

4 Vector Spaces 14 Lectures

4.1 The Theory of linear Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4.2 Subspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3!
4.3 Basis and Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2!
4.4 Finite-Dimensional Vector Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3!
4. 5 One-sided Inverses • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 1 !2

5 Linear Transformations 9 Lectures

5.1 Fundamentals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
5.2 Matrix Multiplication Revisited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
5.3 Application: Computer Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
5.4 The Matrices of a Linear Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
5.5 Changing Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

6 Orthogonality 12 Lectures
6.1 Projection Matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
6.2 Application: Data Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1!
6.3 The Gram-Schmidt Algorithm and OR Factorization . . . . . . . 2!
6.4 Orthogonal Subspaces and Complements . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
6. 5 The Pseudoinverse of a Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

7 The Spectral Theorem 4 or 10 Lectures

7.1 Complex Numbers and Matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
7.2 Unitary Diagonalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
7.3 Real Symmetric Matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
7.4 Application: Quadratic Forms, Conic Sections. . . . . . . . . . . 1
7.5 The Singular Value Decomposition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
 Chapter 1

Euclidean n-Space

1.1 Vectors and Arrows

A two-dimensional vector is a pair of numbers written one above the other

in a column and enclosed in brackets. For example,

are two-dimensional vectors. Different people use different notation for

vectors. Some people underline, others use boldface type and still others
arrows. Thus, in various contexts, you may well see

~. v and v
as notation for a vector. In this book, we will use boldface, the second form,
but in handwriting the author prefers to underline.
The components of the vector v = [ : J are the numbers a and b. By general
agreement, vectors are equal if and only if they have the same first compo-
nent and the same second component. Thus, if

then a- 3 = -1 and 2b = 6, so a= 2 and b = 3. The vector [: J is often

pictured by an arrow in the plane.

Take any point A(x0 ,y0 ) as the tail and

B(xo +a, yo+ b) as the head of an arrow. This
1.1.1
arrow, from A to B, is a picture of the vector [: J.

1
 2 Chapter 1. Euclidean n-Space

y B(xo +a, yo+ b) y B(Xt,YJ.)

~=[:] /
h= [Xl-XO]
.·-- Yl-YO
A(xo.Yo) A(xo.Yo)
X X

Figure 1.1: The arrow fromA(x0 ,y0 ) to B(Xt.Yt) is a picture of the

vector [x1 - Xo] .
Yt-Yo

The notation AB means the vector pictured by the arrow from A to B. Thus
AB = [: J is pictured by the arrow shown on the left in Figure 1.1. It is
important to distinguish between vectors, which are columns of numbers,
and arrows, which are pictures.
Letting Xt = x 0 +a and Yt = y 0 + b, so that the coordinates of B become
(x1 ,y1 ),wehavea=Xt-xoandb=yt-Yo,soAB= b = y -y - [a] [x1 -
Xo] •
1 0

The arrow fromA(xo,yo) to B(xt.Yd is

1.1.2
a picture of the vector AB = [~~ =~~ J.

For example, if A = (2, 3) and B = - [7- 2] [5]

(7, 4), the vector AB is 4 _
3
=
1
.

READING CHECK 1. If A = ( -2, 3) and B = (1, 5), what is the vector AB?

READING CHECK 2.

AB = [- n. Suppose the arrow from A to B is a picture of the vector

If A = (-4, 2)' what is B?

Notice that a vector can be pictured by many arrows, since we can place the
tail at any point (xo, Yo). Each of the arrows in Figure 1.2 is a picture of the
vector [ ~ J. How do we know if two arrows are pictures of the same vector?

Two arrows picture the same vector if and only if

1.1.3
they have the same length and the same direction.
 1.1. Vectors and Arrows 3

y
(-3, 3)

(-4.1) I (0,1)
(1,2)

X
(2,-1)

(-3,-2)
(-1,-1)

/,)
Figure 1.2: Five arrows, each one a picture of the vector [ ~ J.

Scalar Multiplication
We can multiply vectors by numbers, an operation called "scalar multipli-
cation.R Almost always, "scalar"1 means "real number," so "scalar multipli-
cation" means "multiplication by a real number." If vis a vector and cis
a scalar, we produce the scalar multiple cv multiplying "componentwise" in
the obvious way. For example,

As illustrated by the last example, -v means (-1 )v.

READING CHECK 3· Is -v a scalar multiple of v?
Can you see the connection between an arrow for v and an arrow for 2v or
an arrow for -v? Look at Figure 1.3. The vector 2v has the same direction
as v, but it is twice as long; -v has the same length as but direction opposite
that of v; Ov = [ gJ is called the zero vector and denoted with a boldface 0.
It has length 0, no direction and is pictured by a single point.

l.lA Definitions. Vectors u and v are parallel if one is a scalar multiple of the
other, that is, if u = cv or v = cu for some scalar c. They have the same
direction if c > 0 and opposite direction if c < 0.
1In Chapter 7, scalars will be complex numbers. In general, scalars can come from any
•fleld" (a spectal.ldnd of algebraic number system). They might be just Os and 1s, for Instance.
 4 Chapter 1. Euclidean n-Space

y 2v = [~]
v= [~]
X

Figure 1.3

Since 0 = Ou for any vector u, the zero vector is parallel to any vector.

READING CHECK 4. Some students misinterpret the definition of "parallel" They

claim that vectors are not parallel because "they are not scalar multiples of
each other." Is this correct?

Vector Addition
We add vectors just as we multiply by scalars, componentwise:

There is a nice connection between arrows for vectors u and v and an arrow
for the sum u + v.

Parallelogram Rule: If arrows for vectors u and v are drawn

1.1.5 with the same tail 0, then an arrow for u +vis the diagonal
of the parallelogram whose sides are u and v with tail at 0.

We illustrate in Figure 1.4 with u =DB= [~] and v = OA = DJ. The sum
of these vectors is

The parallelogram rule says that this vector can be pictured by the diagonal
DC of the parallelogram OACB. So we have to convince ourselves that Cis
the point (4, 3). To see why this is the case, use the fact that OA and BC are
parallel and of the same length to conclude that triangles BQC and OPA are
congruent, so BQ has length 1, QC has length 2 and, indeed, the coordinates
of Care (4, 3): u + v = OC is pictured by the arrow from 0 to C.
 1.1. Vectors and Arrows 5

y
------/ C(?, ?)
A(l 2) .---------
' ~-- -

U+V // v 2

: \ ___ Q

0 1 p X

Figure 1.4: Vector u + v can be pictured by the arrow that is the

diagonal of the parallelogram with sides u and v.

There is another way to picture u + v. Still with reference to Figure 1.4, we

note that v = OA = BC. So OC = u + v = OB + BC: The vector OC is the
third side of triangle OBC. This gives a second way to picture the sum of
two vectors.

Triangle Rule: If an arrow for u goes from A to

1.1.6 B and an arrow for v from B to C, then an arrow
for u + v goes from A to C: AB + = AC. BC

U+V

A v

Figure 1.5: On the left, the parallelogram rule for vector addition; on
the right, the triangle rule.

Subtracting Vectors
Just as 5 - 2 means 5 + (- 2), we subtract vectors using the convention that

1.1.7 I u- v u + (-v).l
=
 6 Chapter 1. Euclidean n-Space

For instance,

[;] -[i] = [;] + ( -[i]) = [;] + [ =i] = [ -iJ.

Similarly,

Again, we look for a geometrical interpretation of this operation. How can

we find an arrow for u - v from arrows for u and v?

Since V + (u- v) = u-see READING CHECK 5-it

follows from the triangle rule that if we represent
v by the arrow from A to C and u - v by an arrow
from C to B, then the arrow from A to B is a picture
of u: XC+ CiJ = ..iB, so .4B -XC = CiJ.

If vectors u and v are pictured by arrows with the

1.1.8 same tail, then u - v can be pictured by the arrow
that goes from the head of v to the head of u.

Notice that u + v and u- v can be pictured by arrows

that are the diagonals of the parallelogram with sides
u and v.
v

The facts that vectors can be pictured by arrows and that any two arrows
with the same length and direction describe the same vector can be used to
prove some familiar propositions from Euclidean geometry.

1.1.9 Problem. Prove that the diagonals of a parallelogram bisect each other.

Solution. Label the vertices of the parallelogram A, B, C, D and draw the

diagonal AC. Let X be the midpoint of AC. We

&
wish to show that X is also the midpoint of BD,
equivalently, that the arrows from B to X and
X to D have the same length and direction, that
is, BX = XD. Since the arrows from A to X and
from X to C have the same length and the same A B
direction, AX =XC. Now BX = BA +AX and
XD = XC + CD. Since BA = CD (the arrows have the same length and
direction) and AX = XC, we have BX = XD, the desired result. ~
 1.1. Vectors and Arrows 7

Before continuing, we record some properties of the addition and scalar

multiplication of vectors. Most of these properties have names that make
them easy to reference. 2

1.1.10 Theorem (Properties of Vector Addition and Scalar Multiplication). Letu,

v and w be vectors and let c and d be scalars.

1. (Oosure under addition) u + v is a vector.

2. (Commutativity of addition) u + v = v + u.

3. (Assodativity of addition) (u + v) + w = u + (v + w).

4. (Zero) u + 0 = 0 + u = u.

5. (Additive Inverse) There is a vector called the additive inverse of u or

Hminus u" and denoted -u which has the property that u + (-u)
(-u) + u = 0.

6. (Oosure under scalar multiplication) cu is a vector.

7. (Scalar assodativity) c (du) = (cd)u.

8. (One) lu = u.

9. (Distributivity) c(u + v) = cu + cv and (c + d)u = cu + du.

We leave proofs of these simple facts to the exercises. Together, they say
that vector algebra is very much like ordinary algebra.

1.1.11 Examples. • 4(u- 3v) + 6( -2u + 3v) = -8u + 6v.

• If 2u + 3v = 6x + 4u, then 6x = -2u + 3v, sox = -tu + ~v.

• If x = 3u - 2v andy = u + v, then u and v can be expressed in terms of

x and y like this:
X 3u- 2v
2y 2u + 2v
x+ 2y Su,

sou= ~(x + 2y) and v = y- u = -~x + h·

READINGCHECKs. Howdoesv+(u-v) = ufollowfromTheoreml.l.lO? Show
all steps and justify each one.

2We have already used some of these properties. They are so natural that it is easy to use
them without rea11ztng it.
 8 Chapter 1. Euclidean n-Space

Higher Dimensions
Most of what we have said about two-dimensional vectors applies more gen-
erally, although our ability to draw pictures becomes difficult or impossible.

1.1.12 Definition. For any positive integer n :e: 1, ann-dimensional vector is a

column [~~] of n numbers enclosed in brackets. The numbers x 1, x,, ... ,

Xn are called the components of the vector.

1.1.13 Examples. . m1s a three-dimenslonal vector wllh components 1, 2

and 3;

0~]
1

• - is a five-dimensional vector with components -1, 0, 0, 1, 2;

[

. ri11s an n-dlmensional vector whose components are 1' 2, 3, ... 'n;

• The n-dimcnsional zero vector 1s the vector m whose n components

are all 0.

1.1.14 Definition. Euclidean n-space is the set of all n-dimensional vectors. It is

denoted Rn:

Euclidean 2-space,
1.1. Vectors and Arrows 9

is more commonly called the Euclidean plane or the plane or sometimes the
xy-plane. Euclidean 3-space

is often called simply 3-space.

Vector Algebra

Two vectors X ~ r:1 andy ~ [ ] are-al if and only if n ~m and the

corresponding components are equal: Xt = Yt. x2 = Y2 •... , Xn = Yn·

For example,[~] and m are not equal while u

equal if and only if a= 3, h = -2 and c = 7.
~ m and v +!J are

Addition and scalar multiplication of n-dimensional vectors are defined com-

ponentwlse, as you would expect. If x ~ r:J andy ~ ~~1 and cis a

scalar, then
Xl +y2
+ Y1]
x+y =
X2
. and ex = r~~:].
r
Xn+Yn CXn

linear Combinations
A sum of scalar multiples of vectors, such as -8u + 6v, has a special name.
 10 Chapter 1. Euclidean n-Space

1.1.16 Definition. A linear combination of vectors u and vis a vector of the form
au + bv, where a and b are scalars. More generally, a linear combination of
k vectors u1, u2, ••• , uk is a vector of the form c1 u1 + c2u2 + · · · + ckuk, where
c1 , ••• , q are scalars.

1.1.17 Examples. • [ -~] is a linear combination of u = [ -~] and v = [ -n

since [ -~] = 4[-i] - 3[-~] 4u- 3v.
=

• [-~J is a linear combination of u1 = [ -i], u2 = [ -~J and U3 = [~]

since [ -~J = 3[ -i] + 2[-~J -[~] = 3Ut + 2u2 + (-1)u3.

a+ 3b 1
2a+ Sb 5
-a 2
3a+ b 0
4a+2b -1.

The third equation says a= -2. Comparing with the first we get b = 1, but
the pair a= -2, b = 1 does not satisfy the second equation. The required
scalars a and b do not exist.
 1.1. Vectors and Arrows 11

1.1.19 P,ohlem. Detennlne whether or not the vector x ~ [=~]Is a linear com·
bblationofu ~ [~].v ~ nl andw~ J]· [

Solution. The question asks whether or not there exist scalars a, b, c so that
x = au + bv + cw; that is, such that

[=~]~a[!] +fll +c[Jl

The vector on the right is [ ; !;
!cc ] , so the question is, are there num-
4a+ 2b- 2c
bers a, b, c such that
- b+3c -1
a+ b+ c -2 ?
4a+ 2b- 2c 2

We find that a= 1, b = -2, c = -1 is a solution. 3 Thus x = u- 2v- w is a

linear combination of u, v and w. ~

1.1.20 Problem. Is[~] alinearcombinationof [-~]and[-~]?

Solution. The question asks if there are scalars a and b such that [ ~ J=
a[-~] + b[ -~]. Equating corresponding components, we must have 3 =
-a- 3b and 0 = 2a + 3b. Adding these equations gives a = 3, so -3b =
3 +a= 6 and b = -2. The answer is Myes:" [~] = 3[ -~] - 2[ -~] is a

linear combination of [ -~ J and [ -~] . ~

READING CHECK 6. Is [ ~ J a linear combination of [- ~J and [ -~ J?

Actually, the answer to Problem 1.1.20 does not depend on the given vec-
tor [~] : Any two-dimensional vector is a linear combination of u and v.
Moreover, this is the case for any u and v that are not parallel.
3 Whether or not you can find a, b and c yourself at this point isn't important. Solving
systems of equations such as the one here is the subject of Section 2.4.
 12 Chapter 1. Euclidean n-Space

w=au+bv
au/
,c ·-·- -
!
!

!
!
I
-- ..:~ -----
bv
I
/
/
! au,'i.----..--
!

Figure 1.6: Any vector w is a linear combination of u and v.

In Figure 1.6, we show two situations of nonparallel vectors u and v and

another vector w and, in each case, we show a parallelogram whose diagonal
is w and whose sides are multiples of u and v. Thus the sides have the form
au and bv and w is their sum au+ bv, a linear combination of u and v.
So any vector in the plane is a linear combination of u and v. Certainly the
converse is true: any linear combination of u and vis in the xy-plane, so we
have met a very important idea.

If two-dimensional vectors u and v are not parallel, then the

1.1.21
set of linear combinations of u and vis the entire xy-plane.

In fact, we can deduce a more general fact from Figure 1.6. By lifting your
book from your desk and moving it around so that the vectors u and v lie in
many planes, we see that

If three-dimensional vectors u and v are not parallel, then

1.1.22
the set of all linear combinations of u and v is a plane in R3 •

1.1.23 Definition. The plane spanned by vectors u and v is the set of all linear
combinations of u and v.

We reinforce this idea in Figure 1.7. The arrow from 0 to A is a picture of

u + 2v and the arrow from 0 to B is a picture of 2u + v. Every vector in the
plane shown in the figure is a linear combination of u and v.

READING CHECK 7. What vector is pictured by the arrow from 0 to C?

 1.1. Vectors and Arrows 13

Figure 1. 7: The set of all linear combinations of u and v is a plane.

The Span of Vectors

1.1.24 Definition. The span of vectors u11 u2 , ••• , Uk is the set U of all linear com-
binations of these vectors. We refer to U as the set spanned by u1, u2, ... , uk.

"Span" is used both as a noun and as a verb.

1.1.25 Examples. • The span of a single vector u is {au I a E R} is just the set
of all scalar multiples of u, which is a line, and a line passing through the
origin (because 0 = Ou is a scalar multiple of u).

• The xy -p/Qne in R' is the set of all vectors of the form [~]· This plane
is spanned by i ~ m ~ [!]
and j because any [ ~ l can be written

x[gl +Y[!] ~xi+yj.

• The span of two nonparallel vectors u and v in R3 is the set of all linear
combinations of u and v, which is a plane, and a plane containing the
origin (because 0 = Ou + Ov is a linear combination of u and v).

• The span m thmctors m.nl .Ul is the set of all vectors of

the form
 14 Chapter 1. Euclidean n-Space

t[~t_i~b ~~cslet of all vectors in R that can be written in the form

4

2a+c
3a+ b + c for scalars a,b,c.
4a+ Sb -4c

1.1.26 Remark. The span of vectors Ut, u2, ••• , Uk always contains the zero vector
because 0 = Ou1 + Ou2 + · · · + Ouk is a linear combination of these vectors.

We extend the concept of "plane" to higher dimensions.

1.1.27 Definition. A plane in Rn, for any n ~ 2, is the span of two nonparallel
vectors u and v.

1.1.28 Problem. Let u = nl Hl·

and v = Describe the plane spanned by u

and v. Does [ _ ~] belong to this plane?

Solution. The plane spanned by u and v is the set of linear combinations of

u and v. So the plane consists of vectors of the form

-1] [ 2] 2bl .
[ ~ + b -1 2: ~:b
3
[-a+
au+ bv =a =

The vector [ _[] is in the plane if and only if there are numbers a and b so

that

-a+ 2b= 1
3b = 6
2a-4b = -1
a+b = 0.

So we would need b = 2 and a = -b = -2 (equations two and four), but

then the first equation is not satisfied. No such a and b exist, so the vector
is not in the plane. ~
 1.1. Vectors and Arrows 15

bj
[:] (a, b)
(0,1)

(1,0) ai X

Figure 1.8: [: J = ai + bj.

The Standard Basis Vectors

1.1.29 Definition. The standard basis vectors in the plane are i = [ ~ J andj = [ ~J.
The standQrd bam vect01> in R3 are i ~ [i]· ~ m ~ m·
j and k The
standard basis vectors in Rn are the vectors et. ez, ... , en where et has ith
component 1 and all other components 0:
1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0
e1 = 0 ' ez = 0 ' e3 = 0 ' ... , en=
0
0 0 0 1

Note that in R2 , e 1 = [~] = i and e 2 = [~] = j. These are pictured in

Figure 1.8. and it is ridiculously easy to see that

Every two-dimensional vector is a linear

1.1.30
combination of i andj: [: J = ai + bj.

For example,[!] = 3[~] + 4[~] = 3i + 4j.

In R3 , e, ~ [i] ~ i, e, ~ m~ j and e, ~ m~ Uhcsc vectors are
pictured in Figure 1.9, which also illustrates that
 16 Chapter 1. Euclidean n-Space

ck

ai ' ,, bj
y
-->----'-,'\:-~i+bj
/
X

Every vector in R3 is a linear combination of i, j and k:

1.1.31
[ ~] ~ ai + bj + ck.
In general, every vector in Rn is a linear combination of e1o e2, ... , en. Another
way to say this is "The standard basis vectors span Rn ."

Every vector in Rn is a linear combination of e1, e2, ... , en:

1.1.32
m~x,e,+x,e,+···+x.e •.

These facts remind the author of questions such as "Who wrote Brahms'

Lui/Qby?" and "Who 1s burted ln G<ant's tomb?" To ask how to write m as

a linear combination of i, j, k is to give away the answer-[!] ~ 3i + Sj + 9k.

READING CHECK 8. So who wrote Brahms' Lullaby?

READING CHECK g. How long did the "Seven Years War" last?

READING CHECK 10. After whom is]. R. Smallwood Collegiate named?

 1.1. Vectors and Arrows 17

READING CHECK 11. Who wrote the William Tell overture?

READING CHECK 12. Write [ -i] as a linear combination of the standard basis

vectors in R4 •

Application: Facial Recognition

1.00
0.25
1.00
1.00 1.00 0.50 1.00 1.00 0.25
1.00
1.00
0.25
1.00
0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.25
1.00
0.75
0.75
0.75
1.00 0.25 1.00 0.25 1.00 0.75
0.75
1.00
1.00
0.50
1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00
1.00

Any fan of a crime show must be impressed at the speed with which good
likenesses of suspects can be produced from the recollections of witnesses.
Vectors provide a useful way to store and manipulate picture data. Stored
in a computer, a picture is just a rectangular grid of tiny squares called "pix-
els." By measuring the average intensity of each pixel, for example on a
scale of 0-1, 0 meaning pitch black and 1 pure white, a picture can be con-
verted to a vector that records the intensity of the pixels. Storing pictures
as vectors rather than as digital images is very efficient-much less memory
is required. Here we attempt to show a robot with dark legs and lightish
arms on a white background. The picture consists of 20 pixels and can be
described by the shown vector. In reality, a picture would be comprised of
tens of thousands of pixels so the vector would live in a Euclidean space
Rn with a very large n. With the help of linear algebra, it is possible to cre-
ate a relatively small number of standard vectors called "eigenfaces," linear
combinations of which can be used to make a pretty good approximation to
any face. For example, a face might be 2096 eigenface 1, 1596 eigenface 2, 6096
eigenface 3 and 596 eigenface 4: Face = 0.20EF1 + 0.15EF2 + 0.60EF3 +0.05EF4 •
Can you imagine your face as a linear combination of the faces of the people
sitting around you?

Answers to Reading Checks

-- [1- (-2)] -[3]

l. AB - S- 3 - 2 ·
18 Chapter 1. Euclidean n-Space
y
2. Let B have coordinates (x,y). Then AB= [-~]
AB = [-~] = [x;~-2 >].
4
Thusx+ A(-~
B(-1,1)
4 = 3 and y - 2 = -1, so x = -1, y = 1.
X
The point B has coordinates ( -1, 1).
3. Sure it is! We just said that -v = ( -l)v.

4. This is not what the definition says. MNot scalar multiples of each other" is

notthe"""" .. """"""';., a"'""' multiple of tlre othe<." I.rt u ~ [~] and

v ~ [:]· The" vectm-s are oot """"' multtplos of oa<h oth"' """"""' v j cu
for any c, but they are parallel because u is a scalar multiple of v.
s. v+ (u -v) V+[U+(-V)] definition of subtraction
V+[(-V)+U] commutativity
[v + (-v)] + u associativity
O+u additive inverse
u zero
6. This question can be solved by the approach used in Problem 1.1.20, but it is
easier simply to notice that [ ~ J = 0 [- ~ J + 0 [- ~J .Indeed the zero vector
is a linear combination of any set of vectors, with all scalars 0.
7. The arrow from 0 to C represents 4u + 2v.
8. Johannes Brahms!
9. Seven years
10. Joseph R. "Joey~ Smallwood, the Premier who brought Newfoundland into Con-
federation with Canada in 1949.
11. Gioacchino Rossini. (Don't press your luck.)

True/False Questions
Decide, with as little calculation as possible, whether each of the following state-
ments is true or false and, if you say "false,~ explain your answer. (Answers are at
the back of the book.)

1. H A= (1, 2) and B = (-3, 5), the vector AB = [ -~] .

1.1. Vectors and Arrows 19

2. The vectors [ ~ J and [ ~ J are parallel

3. If u and v are nonzero vectors in 3-space that are not parallel, then u and v
span a plane.

4. m~ a linear combination of m Jl and [

5. 4u- 9v is a linear combination of 2u and 7v.

6. [ -!] ~ ''- 3j + 4k.

7. The zero vector is a linear combination of any three vectors u, v, w.

8. The set of all linear combinations of the vectors [ ~ J and [ ~ J is a plane.

9. Every vector in R3 is a linear combination of i, j and k.

10. • .... "'""' In •' Is a linear mmblnatlon of'· j. k and " ~ m.

EXERCISES-----------------
Answers to exercises marked [BB] can be found at the Back of the Book..

1. Find the vector AB and illustrate with a picture if

(a) [BB] A= ( -2, 1) and B = (1, 4) (b) A= (1, -3) and B = (-3,2)
(c) A= (-4,-1) andB= (4,3) (d) A= (2,4) and B = (-2, -2).

2. (a) [BB) Find B given A = (1, 4) and AB = [- ~ J.

(b) FindAgivenB=(1,4)andAB= [-~].
(c) FindAgivenB=(-2,3)andAB= [i].
(d) Find B given A= ( -9, -5) and AB = [ =n .
3. I)!B]Jfpo,,..Ie• .,.,,..,, x ~ [-~] .. a"""" multlplo of u ~ [ =ii]· os a
,,,.,., multiple of v ~m'- . . a """" multlplo of w ~ [::!] . justify

your answers.
20 Chapter 1. Euclidean n-Space

4. ff po•Oh"- expresu ~ -~] ~~amdtiple ~ -J] , ~

[ "'" of" [ ofv H] ,
of w l' ~ m.
~ [ ~! and of y [ ]notify you<anow.<&

s. I.e'" ~ Jl ~ m
[ . and v Is "" '"'"" multiple of v?Iov a "'""' multiple
of u? Are u and v parallel? Explain.

6. Which of the following vectors are scalar multiples of other vectors in the list?
Justify your answers.

7. [BB] Given Ut. u2 , u3 , u4 , u5 as in Exercise 6, list all pairs of parallel vectors. In

the case of parallel vectors, state, if possible, whether they have the same or
opposite direction

8. Express each of the following linear combinations of vectors as a single vector.

(a) [BB] 4[ -~] + z[n (b) a[-~] -3[-~J

(c)
~13 [l]-,[Jl-+~l (d)
,[JJ-·m +,nl
(e) 7
m+·Hl-+tl (f)
~Hl-~[~~l +,[Jl
(g)
~[JJ- ·:m (h)
f~l +,m
-·[-!J·
9. Suppose u = [ -~J ,v = [
6~b J and w = [n . Find a and b if

(a) [BB] 2u -v = w; (b) 4u -v+ 3w = 0;

(c) 2 u - 3v + 5w = 0; (d) 6(u- w) = 12v.

10. Suppose x, y, u and v are vectors. Express x andy in terms of u and v, given
(a) [BB] x- y = u and 2x + 3y = v (b) 2x- 3y = -u and -8x + 13y = 3v
(c) x + y = 2u and x- y = v (d) 3x + Sy = -u and 4x- y = v.

11. Find a and b, if possible.

1.1. Vectors and Arrows 21

12. In each case, determine whether vis a linear combination of

I
·· ~ r~1 ·~ ~ r11 .·· ~ m1.·· ~ r1-., ~ r!1·
Justify your answers.

~)v ~ rl1 (c)v ~ r~~l

13. In each case, either express pas a linear combination of u, v, w or explain why
there is no such linear combination.
22 Chapter 1. Euclidean n-Space

14. In each of the following cases, find u - v and illustrate with a picture.

(a) [BB]u= [=~J.v= [i] (b) u= [ -~J 'v = [ -!J

(c) u = DJ. v = [ -:] (d) u= [n . v= [ -~J .
15. (a) [BB] Shown at the right are two u
nonparallel vectors u and v and four
other vectors w1.w2 ,w3 ,w4. Repro- v
duce u, v and Wt in a picture by them-
selves and exhibit Wt as the diagonal
of a parallelogram with sides that are
scalar multiples of u and v. Guess (ap-
proximate) values of a and b so that
w1 =au+ bv.
Repeatpart(a)usingeachof(b)wz, (c)w3 and (d)w4,instead ofw1.

16. Express [; J as a linear combination of each of the following pairs of vectors:

(b) [ -~] and[~]
2
(d) [~] and [ ~] .

17. The vectors u = [ ~ J and v = [- ~ J are not parallel. According to 1.1.21, any
vector x in the plane is a linear combination of u and v.

Verify this statement with x = [~] , x = [~] and x = DJ.

18. (a) [BB] Is it possible to express DJ as a linear combination of [ =;J and

[~J? Explain_
(b) Does your answer to part (a) contradict 1.1.21? Explain.
1.1. Vectors and Arrows 23

19. ,.,., ~ [!l ~ i] -., ~ m.~ [g]

v, [ a Hnm <emhnation of v,, "·

v, (BB(? What about m m ? What about ?

20. (a) [BB] Is it possible to express the zero vector as a linear combination of
[!J and [ =~ J in more than one way? Justify your answer.
(b) Is it possible to express the zero vector as a linear combination of [!]
and [ -i] in more than one way? Justify your answer.

21. Let u ~ [-~] .00 v ~ [-!] .In each case, detennine - - w is m the
plane spanned by u and v.

(>) ~B(w~ [g] ~) w~ [~i] (<) w~ m

(~ w+~J (e) w~ nl
22. In each case, determine whether or not u is in the span of the other vectors.

~)u ~ [l~] ,v~ [i] ,w~ m

23. (a) [BB] Do the vectors u1 = [-!J and u2 = [ -~J span R2? If the answer is
yes, provide a proof; otherwise, explain why the answer is no.

(b) Answer part (a) with u1 = [ ~ J and u2 = [ iJ.

24 Chapter 1. Euclidean n-Space

24. Do <he ve<tm• o, ~ [ _!] ond o, ~ m'P"' R7 ? If <he""'"'';, ye•,

provide a proof; otherwise, explain why the answer is no.

25. (a) Suppose xis a vector in the plane spanned by nonparallel vectors u and
v. Show that any scalar multiple of x lies in the same plane.

(b) Let x • [ ~:] be a v<eto• who" components satiofy <he equation ax +

by +cz = 0. Show that the components of any scalar multiple of x satisfy

the same equation.
26. LetO(O, O),A(2, 2),B(4, 4), C(2, -l),D(4, l),E(6, 3),F(2, -4), G(6, O),H(8, 2)
be points in the xy-plane. Let u = OA be the vector pictured by the arrow
from 0 to A and v = DC the vector pictured by the arrow from 0 to C.
(a) [BB] Find u and v.
(b) Express each of the following vectors as a linear combination of u and v.
i. [BB] OD v. Ai
ii. 6G vi. Gi
iii. Oil vii. iiC.
iv. CA.
Forexample,OE= [~] =2u+v.

27. [BB] Suppose ABC is a triangle. Let D be the mid-

point of AB and E be the midpoint of AC. Use vec-
tors to show that DE is parallel to BC and half its
length.

28. Suppose ABCD is a quadrilateral, with sides AB and A B

CD parallel and of the same length. Use vectors to
show that ABCD is a parallelogram.
/r------------;1
D C
29. Let A, B and C denote the three vertices of a triangle. Let E be the midpoint
of AC. Show thatBE = (BA + BC). l

30. Let ABCD be an arbitrary quadrilateral in the

plane. Let P, Q, R and S be, respectively, the
midpoints of AB, BC, DC and AD. Use vectors
to show that PQRS is a parallelogram.
31. Problem 1.1.9 says that the diagonals of a parallelogram bisect each other.
Establish the "converse;"4 namely, that if the diagonals of a 4-sided polygon
bisect each other, then that polygon is a parallelogram.
4 The converse of "tf .:ll, then ~·ts the statement "tf ~. then .:ll."
1.1. Vectors and Arrows 25

32. [BB] Let A(l,2), B(4,-3) and C(-1,-2) be three points in the plane. Find a
fourth point D such that A, B, C and D are the vertices of a parallelogram and
justify your answer. Is the answer unique?
33. Given three points A( -1,0), B(2, 3), C(4, -1) in the plane, find all points D
such that the four points A, B, C, Dare the vertices of a parallelogram.
34. Given P(2, -3, 6) and Q(2, 2, -4), find a point Ron the line segment from P
to Q that is two fifths of the way from P to Q.
35. Use vectors to show that the midpoint of the line joining A(x1, Y1. Z1) to
B(x2.Y2.z2) is the point C(x•;X2, ~. z•;z2 ).

36. [BB; 1, 2, 5] Prove all parts of Theorem 1.1.10 for two-dimensional vectors.

Critical Reading
37. Suppose cis a nonzero scalar and xis a nonzero vector in Rn. Explain why
ex -J 0.

38. Suppose u and w are nonzero vectors in a (finite dimensional) vector space V
neither of which is a scalar multiple of the other. Find a vector that is not a
scalar multiple of u and not a scalar multiple of w.
39. (a) What does it mean to say that a plane is •spanned• by vectors u and v?
(b) Let 1r be the plane spanned by nonparallel vectors u and v. Show that u
and v are each in 1r.

40. Give an example of three nonzero vectors in R3 that span a plane and explain
how you found these vectors.

41- I)!B] Show that my llireawnnbll>aHon of [!] m md is also a tineM mm-

bfuatlon of m m-and

42. (a) [BB] Given vectors u and v, show that any linear combination of 2u and
-3v is a linear combination of u and v.
(b) Show that any linear combination of u and vis a linear combination of 2u
and -3v.
43. Suppose u and v are vectors. Show that the span of u, v and 0 is the same as
the span of u and v.
44. In 1.1.32, we observed that every vector in Rn is a linear combination of the
standard basis vectors e 1, e 2 , ... , en. Explain why the coefficients used in such
a linear combination are unique; that is, if X1 e1 + x2e2 + · · · + Xnen = Y1 e1 +
Y2e2 + · · · + Ynen, then X1 = Ylo X2 = Yz, ... , Xn = Yn·
26 Chapter 1. Euclidean n-Space

45. Suppose u and v are vectors and u is a scalar multiple of v. Need v be a scalar
multiple of u? Explain.

46. Let u, v and w be vectors. Show that any linear combination of u and v is also
a linear combination of u, v and w.

47. Suppose u, v and ware vectors and w = 2u - 3v. Show that any linear combi-
nation of u, v and w is actually a linear combination of just u and v.

48. (a) [BB] Explain how one could use vectors to show that three points X, Y and
Z are collinear. (Points are collinear if they lie on a line.)
(b) Of the five points A( -1, 1, 1), B(2, 2, 1), C(O, 3, 4), D(2, 7, 10), E(6, 0, -5),
which triples, if any, are collinear?
X C
49. S_h.ow tha...!...the vector AX is a linear combination of ~
AB and AC with the coefficients summing to 1.
B
\V
A

50. Given a triangle AoBoCo, the first Gunther triangle is constructed as follows:
A1 lies on AoBo and is such that AoA~ = l~; B1 lies on BoCo and is such
- 1- - ~-
that BoB1 = 3BoCo; C1 lies on CoAo and is such that CoC1 = 3 CoAo. Do this
again to obtain triangle A 2 B 2 C2 , the first Gunther triangle of A 1B1C1. (1bis
is called the second Gunther triangle of A0 BoC0 .) Use vectors to show that
the lengths of corresponding sides of ~2B2C2 and .6AoBoCo are in the same
proportions, hence that these two triangles are similar.

51. (a) [BB] lf u and v are parallel vectors, show that some nontrivial linear com-
bination of u and vis the zero vector. (Nontrivial means that Ou + Ov = 0
doesn't count!)
(b) Show that if some nontrivial linear combination of vectors u and v is 0,
then u and v are parallel.

1.2 Length and Direction

How long is an arrow that pictures the vector v = [: J?

Remembering the Theorem of Pythagoras and looking at the figure on the
left of Figure 1.10, we see that the length is .Ja2 + b2. It is easily seen that
this formula extends to 3-dimensional vectors-see the figure on the right.
We use the notation II vii for the length of vector v.
 1.2. Length and Direction 27

y z
P(a,b,c)
(a, b)
v - [:

b
0
y
·--.,J'
A(a,b,O)
a X X

Figure 1.10: The length ofv is II vii = ./a2 + b 2 ; llc3PII = ../a 2

+ b 2 + c 2•

1.2.1 DefbUtlon. For n ~ 1. the length of x = [f] Is ~x! + xl + · · · + ~-

Thus ln •'·II[:J1
= "a'+
b' and ln = ···II [~]II
b' +e'. The..
numbers are the lengths of the arrows that picture each vector so, in this
"a'+
respect, they are realistic. When n > 3, the definition of length is simply
that, a definition, albeit one that seems sensible because it agrees with fact
in the plane and in 3-space.

1.2.2 Examples. • Ifv = [-!],then llvll = .j3 2 + (-4) 2 = 5.

• Ifv = [ J]. then llvll = ../2.

• []] =V4=2. ..
~

READING CHECK 1. Only the zero vector has length 0. Why?

SUppose v = [ ~] and k Is a scalar. Then kv = [E]. so

llkvll = ~(ka)2 + (kb)2 + (kc)2

= ~,-k2_(_a_2_+_b_2_+_c_2_) = .Jk:i.Ja2 + b2 + c2 = Ik I llv II ,
 28 Chapter 1. Euclidean n-Space

an observation that extends to any Euclidean space.

1.2.3 Ifv is a vector in Rn and k is a scalar, llkvll = lklllvll.

READING CHECK 2. If k is a real number, what is JkJ?

The fact expresssed in 1.2.3 is just an algebraic formulation of something
we have noticed in R2 • The length of (an arrow for) 2v is twice the length of
v; the length of -tv is one half the length of v, and so on.

1.2.4 Definition. A unit vector is a vector oflength 1.

1.2.5 Examples. • Each of the standard basis vectors in Rn is a unit vector.

R~ill Wt ffi= ~ ~coors ~ ril· ~ rrl· · · •• ~ r~ ·

me e1 e,

• [~] is a umt vecoor m R

2
an+~] is a umt vector m R'.

We can use 1.2.3 to make unit vectors. If vis any vector (except the zero
1 1 1
vector) and we put k = M' then llkvll = lklllvll = M llvll = 1. Thus Mv
is a unit vector, and it has the same direction as v since it is a positive scalar
multiple ofv.

1.2.6 For any v, the vector ~ v is a unit vector in the direction of v.

1.2.7 EXample. To find a uiDt vector with me same direction as v ~[ -n. we

~:~nr 11•11 ~ ./2' + (-2)' +., ~ ../9 ~ 3. The desired vector is

 1.2. Length and Direction 29

Dot Product and the Angle Between Vectors

Let v = [ ; J be a two-dimensional vector. If llvll = 1, then x 2 + y 2 = 1.

This means that if vis pictured by an arrow that starts at the origin, then
the arrowhead lies on the unit circle. Since any point on the unit circle has
coordinates of the form (cos ex, sin ex) (see Figure 1.11), it follows that

1.2.8 Any two-dimensional unit vector is [ ~:: J for some angle ex.
y
y
(cos,8, s1n,8)
v

(cos or, sin or)

u
(cos a, sin a) X

Figure 1.11: Any vector

of length 1 has the form
Figure 1.12: The angle be-
[~:: J for some angle oc. tween u and v is {3 - a.

Suppose u = [ ~: J and v = [ ~: J each have length 1. For convenience,

let's suppose that 0 < ex< /3 < -g:. See Figure 1.12. The angle between u and
v is /3 - oc and the author is hoping that you remember one of the important
"addition formulas" of trigonometry, this one:

cos(/3 - oc) = cos /3 cos oc + sin/3 sin oc.

Look at the right hand side. This is the product of the first coordinates of
u and v added to the product of the second coordinates of u and v. We
have discovered that if 8 is the angle between unit vectors u = [ :~ J and
v = [::],then cos8 = a1a2 + b1b2. The expression on the right has a
special name: it's called the dot product of u and v.

1.2.9 Defimtion. The dM p~ ~ [Zl of u md v ~ [~~] ~ num~ b

a1b1 + a2b2 + · · · + anbn. It is denoted u · v.

 30 Chapter 1. Euclidean n-Space

1.2.10 Examples. • Ifu = [ -~] andv = [ _jJ, thenu·v = -1(4)+2(-3) = -10.

• If u • [ -~] and v • Ul then u · v • -1(1) + 0(2)+ 2(3) + 3(-2) +

5(-2) = -11.

We were led to the idea of dot product because of our observation that if u
and v are unit vectors, then u ·vis the cosine of the angle between u and v.

1.2.11 Example. The vectors u = [ ~] and v = [ = nare unit vectors, so the

cosine of the angle 0 between them is cos 0 = u · v = - 5 ~ -

5~ = - 5~ ~
-0.990. So 0 ~ arccos(-0.990) ~ 3.000 rads ~ 171.87°. ..::.

The expression "angle between vectors" that

we have been using is somewhat ambiguous as
shown in the figure. Is this angle () or 2rr - ()?
By general agreement, the angle between vec- 2rr- 8
tors is an angle in the range 0 :s; () s rr.

If () is the angle between unit vectors u and v, then cos () = u · v, but what if
u and v are not unit vectors? What is the angle between u and v in general?
Notice that the angle in question has nothing to do with the length of the
vectors. For example, this angle is the same as the angle between unit vectors
that have the same direction as u and v. In 1.2.6, we showed that 11 11 u and t
!
11 11 v are just such vectors. Using what we know about unit vectors,
1 1 1
cosO=Mu·Mv= llullllvllu·v. (1)
in summary,

U·V
1.2.12
cos 0 = llullllvll
Written differently, this is

1.2.13 u · v = llullllvll cosO.

 1.2. Length and Direction 31

Both of these formulas are important. We have attempted to give plausible

arguments explaining their validity in R2 where vectors can be pictured with
arrows and the angle between arrows is a real angle. In higher dimensions,
we take 1.2.12 simply as a definition of cos 8 yet to be justified-see later in
this section where we discuss the "Cauchy-Schwarz" inequality.

1.2.14 Remark. The author confesses that he is getting a bit ahead of himself here.
!
Proper justification for the assertion II~JI u · 11 11 v = ~ulfllvll u · v in equation (I)
is actually a consequence of part 3 of Theorem 1.2. 0, which is still to come.
On the other hand, the author doesn't like making obvious things seem hard
and hopes the reader feels the same way.

1.2.15 Example. If u = [ f] and v = [ ,hJ, then u · v = J3 + J3 = 2J3. Since

2
llull = ~(J3) 2 + 12 = J4 = 2 = llvll, cosO= llu~ 1.17v 1 = '!; = so 6 = f,
~ radians = 30". lbis is the actual angle between suitable arrows for u
andv.

12.16 Example. SUppose u {l] and v ~ ~~]

[ . Then

llull = ~1 2 + 22 + (-3)2 + 12 = Jf5,

llvll = ~(-2)2 + 12 + (-1)2 + 42 = m,
u. v = 1(-2) + 2(1) + (-3}(-1) + 1(4) = 7,
U·V 7
so cos 8 = llu II II vii JISJ22 ~ .385. Therefore () ~ arccos(.385) = 1.175
radians ~ 67.3". In contrast with the previous example, this is the angle
between the four-dimensional vectors u and v by definition.

1.2.17 Examples. • If u ~ Dl and v ~ rJ .

[- then cos 9 ~ II ~11·1~11 "
-8-2-2 -12 . .
.j24.J6 = v' = -1, so 6 = rr, a fact consistent With the observa-
144
tion that u = -2v.

• If u [1]
2
= ~ and v =
[-1]-!
1 U·V
'then cos 9 = llullllvll =
-1+2+3-4
llullllvll = O.
The angle between u and v is 6 = ¥.
 32 Chapter 1. Euclidean n-Space

Vectors u and v are perpendicular-in linear algebra, the word "orthogonal"

is preferred-if the angle between them is ~ radians. Since cos~ = 0 and
since a fraction is 0 if and only if its numerator is 0, equation 1.2.13 shows
that orthogonality can be defined in terms of the dot product.

1.2.18 Definition. Vectors u and v are orthogonal if and only if u · v = 0. More gen-
erally, vectors x1, x2, ... , Xn are orthogonal if and only if they are orthogonal
pairwise: Xt • x1 = 0 when i f. j.

1.2.19 Examples. • The vectors u = [!] and v -i] are orthogonal.

= [

• The vecwrs u { !] - ~v i] ~
[- ocfuogonal

• The zero vector is orthogonal to any vector because u · 0 = 0 for any u.

• The standard basis vectors in Rn are orthogonal because if i f. j, the
ls in et and e1 are in different positions:
0 0

1 0
ei · e1 = = o. ..
'-'
0 1

0 0

We summarize the basic properties of the dot product in a theorem, leaving

proofs for the exercises.

1.2.20 Theorem (Properties of the Dot Product) . Let u, v and w be vectors and let
c be a scalar.

1. (Commutativity) u · v = v · u.
2. (Distributivity) u · (v + w) = u · v + u · w and (u + v) · w = u · w + v · w.
3. (Scalar assodativity) (cu) · v = c (u · v) = u · (cv).
2
4. u · u = llull •

As with Theorem 1.1.10, you will find yourself using this latest theorem
without realizing it.
 1.2. Length and Direction 33

1.2.21 Example. Computing (2u + 3v) · (u + 4v) is very similar to the way we find
the product (2x + 3y) (x + 4y) = 2x2 + 11xy + 12y2 •
Consider (2u + 3v) · (u + 4v)

= (2u + 3v) · u + (2u + 3v) · (4v) distributivity

= (2u) · u + (3v) · u + (2u) · (4v) + (3v) · (4v) distributivity again
= 2(u · u) + 3(v · u) + 2(4)(u · v) + 3(4)(v · v) scalar associativity
= 2(u · u) + 3(u · v) + B(u · v) + 12(v · v) commutativity
= 211ull 2 + llu · v + 1211vll 2 . u·u = llull 2

READING (HECK g. Find (3X - 7y) (X + 2y) and (3U - 7v) · (U + 2v).

The Cauchy-Schwarz Inequality5

Remember that we have defined the cosine of the angle 0 between vectors
in any Euclidean space by the formula
U·V
cos 8 = llullllvll'
but is this valid? Suppose the fraction on the right side is 1.3. There is no
angle 0 with this cosine! As it turns out, and we are very lucky(!), the right
side is always between -1 and 1, so it is always a cosine. It's easy to believe
this in R2 if you have been convinced that the fraction here is truly the cosine
between arrows for u and v. The problem is that in higher dimensions, where
the idea of "angle" may seem dubious, the formula needs proof! The desired
fact,
U·V
1
- ~ llullllvll ~ 1'
can be written as a single inequality.

1.2.22 lu ·vi~ llullllvll cauchy-Schwarz Inequality

which, as noted, is known as the "Cauchy-Schwarz" inequality.

swith both a crater on the moon and a Paris street named after him, Augustin-Louis Cauchy
(1789-1857) contributed to almost every area of mathematics. HermannAmandus Schwarz
(1843-1921), a student of Weierstrass, ts best known for his work In conformal mappings.
 34 Chapter 1. Euclidean n-Space

1.2.23 Example. SUppose u ~ nl and v ~ ~l [ Then II u II

.,16, llvll = .J4 + 1 + 1 + 16 = .J'l2 and u · v = -2 + 0 + 2 - 4 = -4. The

~ ./1 + o + 4 + 1 =

Cauchy-Schwarz inequality says that lu ·vi 5 llullllvll. Here the left side is
I- 41, the right side is .J6.J'l2 and certainly 4 5 v'TI2.

To prove the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, we begin with the observation that

the inequality is certainly true if u = 0 because in this case Iu · vi = 0
and llullllvll = 0. This leaves the case u -:{. 0, and here we use something
that students usually call a "trick." A better term is "insight, • an idea that
somebody once had and which led to something useful.
The "insight" is the fact that (xu+ v) · (xu+ v) ~ 0 for any real number x
because the dot product of any vector with itself, being a sum of squares,
cannot be negative. Remembering that (xu + v) · (xu+ v) expands just like
(xa + b) 2 -see Example 1.2.21-we obtain
(XU + V) · (XU+ V) = X (U · U) + 2X(U · V) + V · V ~ 0.
2
(2)

Letting a= u · u, b = 2(u ·v) and c = v·v, equation (2) says that ax2 +bx+c ~
+
0 for all x. Also a 0 because we are assuming u 0. Thus a > 0 and the +
graph of y = ax2 + bx +cis a parabola pointing upwards. Since y ~ 0
for all x, this parabola intersects the x-axis at most once, so the quadratic
ax 2 + bx + c is 0 for at most one x. See Figure 1.13. The roots of

y > 0 for one x,

y > 0 forallx y 2! 0 for all x
y < 0 for another

Figure 1.13: If y = ax 2 + bx + c ~ 0, then y = 0 for at most one x.

ax 2 + bx + c = 0 are given by the well-known formula

-b ± .Jb2- 4ac
X=
2a
and, since there is at most one root, the term under the root (known as the
discriminant) cannot be positive (otherwise, we would have two roots). Thus
b 2 - 4ac::;;; 0,
b2 ::;;; 4ac,
4(u · v) 2 5 4(u · u)(v · v),
(u · v) 2 5 (u · u)(v · v) = llull 2 11vll 2 •
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[This man Parris must have had an inferior intellect, small
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A PROTEAN DEVIL.

Before we look at his next proceeding, however, we must bring

into view one or two facts essential to the understanding of the
case. We have already observed on the universality of the belief in
the ever-present agency of Satan in that region and that special
season. In the woods the Red Men were his agents—living in and for
his service and his worship. In the open country, Satan himself was
seen, as a black horse, a black dog, as a tall, dark stranger, as a
raven, a wolf, a cat, etc. Strange incidents happened there as
everywhere—odd bodily affections and mental movements; and
when devilish influences are watched for, they are sure to be seen.
Everybody was prepared for manifestations of witchcraft from the
first landing in the Bay; and there had been more and more cases,
not only rumored, but brought under investigation, for some years
before the final outbreak.
This suggests the next consideration: that the generation
concerned had no “alternative” explanation within their reach, when
perplexed by unusual appearances or actions of body or mind. They
believed themselves perfectly certain about the Devil and his doings;
and his agency was the only solution of their difficulties, while it was
a very complete one. They thought they knew that his method of
working was by human agents, whom he had won over and bound
to his service. They had all been brought up to believe this; and they
never thought of doubting it.

STATE OF PHYSIOLOGY.

The very conception of science had then scarcely begun to be

formed in the minds of the wisest men of the time; and if it had
been, who was there to suggest that the handful of pulp contained
in the human skull, and the soft string of marrow in the spine, and
cobweb lines of nerves, apparently of no more account than the
hairs of the head, could transmit thoughts, emotions, passions—all
the scenery of the spiritual world! For two hundred years more there
was no effectual recognition of anything of the sort. At the end of
those two centuries anatomists themselves were slicing the brain like
a turnip, to see what was inside it,—not dreaming of the leading
facts of its structure, nor of the inconceivable delicacy of its
organization. After half a century of knowledge of the main truth in
regard to the brain, and nearly that period of study of its
organization, by every established medical authority in the civilized
world, we are still perplexed and baffled at every turn of the inquiry
into the relations of body and mind. How, then, can we make
sufficient allowance for the effects of ignorance in a community
where theology was the main interest in life, where science was yet
unborn, and where all the influences of the period concurred to
produce and aggravate superstitions and bigotries which now seem
scarcely credible?
[The reviewer appears to be a half believer in Phrenology, and yet
unwilling to acknowledge his indebtedness to its teachers for the
light he has received in the organization and phenomena of the
brain.]

WILLIAM PENN AS A PRECEDENT.

There had been misery enough caused by persecutions for

witchcraft within living memory to have warned Mr. Parris, one would
think, how he carried down his people into those troubled waters
again; but at that time such trials were regarded by society as trials
for murder are by us, and not as anything surprising except from the
degree of wickedness. William Penn presided at the trial of two
Swedish women in Philadelphia for this gravest of crimes; and it was
only by the accident of a legal informality that they escaped, the
case being regarded with about the same feeling as we experienced
a year or two ago when the murderess of infants, Charlotte Winsor,
was saved from hanging by a doubt of the law. If the crime spread—
as it usually did—the municipal governments issued an order for a
day of fasting and humiliation, “in consideration of the extent to
which Satan prevails amongst us in respect of witchcraft.” Among
the prosecutions which followed on such observances there was one
here and there which turned out, too late, to have been a mistake.
This kind of discovery might be made an occasion for more fasting
and humiliation; but it seems to have had no effect in inducing
caution or suggesting self-distrust. Mr. Parris and his partisans must
have been aware that on occasion of the last great spread of
witchcraft, the magistrates and the General Court had set aside the
verdict of the jury in one case of wrongful accusation, and that there
were other instances in which the general heart and conscience
were cruelly wounded and oppressed, under the conviction that the
wisest and saintliest woman in the community had been made away
with by malice, at least as much as mistaken zeal.
The wife of one of the most honored and prominent citizens of
Boston, and the sister of the Deputy Governor of Massachusetts,
Mrs. Hibbins, might have been supposed safe from the gallows,
while she walked in uprightness, and all holiness and gentleness of
living. But her husband died; and the pack of fanatics sprang upon
her, and tore her to pieces—name and fame, fortune, life, and
everything. She was hanged in 1656, and the farmers of Salem
Village and their pastor were old enough to know, in Mr. Parris’ time,
how the “famous Mr. Norton,” an eminent pastor, “once said at his
own table”—before clergymen and elders—“that one of their
magistrates’ wives was hanged for a witch, only for having more wit
than her neighbors;” and to be aware that in Boston “a deep feeling
of resentment” against her persecutors rankled in the minds of some
of her citizens; and that they afterward “observed solemn marks of
Providence set upon those who were very forward to condemn her.”
The story of Mrs. Hibbins, as told in the book before us, with the
brief and simple comment of her own pleading in court, and the
codicil to her will, is so piteous and so fearful, that it is difficult to
imagine how any clergyman could countenance a similar procedure
before the memory of the execution had died out, and could be
supported in his course by officers of his church, and at length by
the leading clergy of the district, the magistrates, the physicians,
“and devout women not a few.”
[Here are evidences of large Cautiousness, fear, and timidity, with
the vivid imagination of untrained childhood.]

PHENOMENA OF WITCHERY.

In the interval between the execution of Mrs. Hibbins and the

outbreak at Salem an occasional breeze arose against some
unpopular member of society. If a man’s ox was ill, if the beer ran
out of the cask, if the butter would not come in the churn, if a horse
shied or was restless when this or that man or woman was in sight;
and if a woman knew when her neighbors were talking about her
(which was Mrs. Hibbins’ most indisputable proof of connection with
the devil), rumors got about of Satanic intercourse; men and women
made deposition that six or seven years before, they had seen the
suspected person yawn in church, and had observed a “devil’s teat”
distinctly visible under his tongue; and children told of bears coming
to them in the night, and of a buzzing devil in the humble-bee, and
of a cat on the bed thrice as big as an ordinary cat. But the
authorities, on occasion, exercised some caution. They fined one
accused person for telling a lie, instead of treating his bragging as
inspiration of the devil. They induced timely confession, or
discovered flaws in the evidence, as often as they could; so that
there was less disturbance in the immediate neighborhood than in
some other parts of the province. Where the Rev. Mr. Parris went,
however, there was no more peace and quiet, no more privacy in the
home, no more harmony in the church, no more goodwill or good
manners in society.
As soon as he was ordained he put perplexing questions about
baptism before the farmers, who rather looked to him for guidance
in such matters than expected to be exercised in theological
mysteries which they had never studied. He exposed to the
congregation the spiritual conflicts of individual members who were
too humble for their own comfort. He preached and prayed
incessantly about his own wrongs and the slights he suffered, in
regard to his salary and supplies; and entered satirical notes in the
margin of the church records; so that he was as abundantly
discussed from house to house, and from end to end of his parish,
as he himself could have desired. In the very crisis of the discontent,
and when his little world was expecting to see him dismissed, he
saved himself, as we ourselves have of late seen other persons
relieve themselves under stress of mind and circumstances, by a
rush into the world of spirits.
Four years previously, a poor immigrant, a Catholic Irishwoman,
had been hanged in Boston for bewitching four children, named
Goodwin—one of whom, a girl of thirteen, had sorely tried a
reverend man, less irascible than Mr. Parris, but nearly as excitable.
The tricks that the little girl played the Reverend Cotton Mather,
when he endeavored to exorcise the evil spirits, are precisely such as
are familiar to us, in cases which are common in the practice of
every physician. If we can not pretend to explain them—in the true
sense of explaining—that is, referring them to an ascertained law of
nature, we know what to look for under certain conditions, and are
aware that it is the brain and nervous system that is implicated in
these phenomena, and not the Prince of Darkness and his train.
Cotton Mather had no alternative at his disposal. Satan or nothing
was his only choice. He published the story, with all its absurd
details; and it was read in almost every house in the Province. At
Salem it wrought with fatal effect, because there was a pastor close
by well qualified to make the utmost mischief out of it.
[In cases of hysteria, the phenomena are sometimes so
remarkable, that one is disposed to attribute their cause to
influences beyond nature.]

PARRIS AND HIS “CIRCLE.”

Mr. Parris had lived in the West Indies for some years, and had
brought several slaves with him to Salem. One of these, an Indian
named John, and Tituba his wife, seem to have been full of the
gross superstitions of their people, and of the frame and
temperament best adapted for the practices of demonology. In such
a state of affairs the pastor actually formed, or allowed to be
formed, a society of young girls between the ages of eight and
eighteen to meet in his parsonage, strongly resembling those
“circles” in the America of our time which have filled the lunatic
asylums with thousands of victims of “spiritualist” visitations. It
seems that these young persons were laboring under strong nervous
excitement, which was encouraged rather than repressed by the
means employed by their spiritual director. Instead of treating them
as the subjects of morbid delusion, Mr. Parris regarded them as the
victims of external diabolical influence; and this influence was,
strangely enough, supposed to be exercised, on the evidence of the
children themselves, by some of the most pious and respectable
members of the community.
We need not describe the course of events. In the dull life of the
country, the excitement of the proceedings in the “circle” was
welcome, no doubt; and it was always on the increase. Whatever
trickery there might be—and no doubt there was plenty; whatever
excitement to hysteria, whatever actual sharpening of common
faculties, it is clear that there was more; and those who have given
due and dispassionate attention to the processes of mesmerism and
their effects can have no difficulty in understanding the reports
handed down of what these young creatures did, and said, and saw,
under peculiar conditions of the nervous system. When the
physicians of the district could see no explanation of the ailments of
“the afflicted children” but “the evil hand,” no doubt could remain to
those who consulted them of these agonies being the work of Satan.
The matter was settled at once. But Satan can work only through
human agents; and who were his instruments for the affliction of
these children? Here was the opening through which calamity rushed
in; and for half a year this favored corner of the godly land of New
England was turned into a hell. The more the children were stared at
and pitied, the bolder they grew in their vagaries, till at last they
broke through the restraints of public worship, and talked nonsense
to the minister in the pulpit, and profaned the prayers. Mr. Parris
assembled all the divines he could collect at his parsonage, and
made his troop go through their performances—the result of which
was a general groan over the manifest presence of the Evil One, and
a passionate intercession for “the afflicted children.”
[These afflicted children of Salem, in 1690, were kindred to the
numerous “mediums” of 1869. In the former, ignorance ascribed
their actions and revelations to the devil, who bewitched certain
persons. Now, we simply have the more innocent “communications”
from where and from whom you like.]

THE INQUISITIONS.—SARAH GOOD.

The first step toward relief was to learn who it was that had
stricken them; and the readiest means that occurred was to ask this
question of the children themselves. At first, they named no names,
or what they said was not disclosed; but there was soon an end of
all such delicacy. The first symptoms had occurred in November,
1691; and the first public examination of witches took place on the
1st of March following. We shall cite as few of the cases as will
suffice for our purpose; for they are exceedingly painful; and there is
something more instructive for us in the spectacle of the
consequences, and in the suggestions of the story, than in the
scenery of persecution and murder.
In the first group of accused persons was one Sarah Good, a
weak, ignorant, poor, despised woman, whose equally weak and
ignorant husband had forsaken her, and left her to the mercy of evil
tongues. He had called her an enemy to all good, and had said that
if she was not a witch, he feared she would be one shortly. Her
assertions under examination were that she knew nothing about the
matter; that she had hurt nobody, nor employed anybody to hurt
another; that she served God; and that the God she served was He
who made heaven and earth. It appears, however, that she believed
in the reality of the “affliction;” for she ended by accusing a fellow-
prisoner of having hurt the children. The report of the examination,
noted at the time by two of the heads of the congregation, is inane
and silly beyond belief; yet the celebration was unutterably solemn
to the assembled crowd of fellow-worshipers; and it sealed the doom
of the community, in regard to peace and good repute.

A CHILD WITCH.

Mrs. Good was carried to jail. Not long after her little daughter
Dorcas, aged four years, was apprehended at the suit of the
brothers Putnam, chief citizens of Salem. There was plenty of
testimony produced of bitings and chokings and pinchings inflicted
by this infant; and she was committed to prison, and probably, as
Mr. Upham says, fettered with the same chains which bound her
mother. Nothing short of chains could keep witches from flying
away; and they were chained at the cost of the state, when they
could not pay for their own irons. As these poor creatures were
friendless and poverty-stricken, it is some comfort to find the jailer
charging for “two blankets for Sarah Good’s child,” costing ten
shillings.
What became of little Dorcas, with her healthy looks and natural
childlike spirits, noticed by her accusers, we do not learn. Her
mother lay in chains till the 29th of June, when she was brought out
to receive sentence. She was hanged on the 19th of July, after
having relieved her heart by vehement speech of some of the
passion which weighed upon it. She does not seem to have been
capable of much thought. One of the accusers was convicted of a
flagrant lie, in the act of giving testimony: but the narrator,
Hutchinson, while giving the fact, treats it as of no consequence,
because Sir Matthew Hale and the jury of his court were satisfied
with the condemnation of a witch under precisely the same
circumstances. The parting glimpse we have of this first victim is
dismally true on the face of it. It is most characteristic.
“Sarah Good appears to have been an unfortunate woman, having
been subject to poverty, and consequent sadness and melancholy.
But she was not wholly broken in spirit. Mr. Noyes, at the time of her
execution, urged her very strenuously to confess. Among other
things, he told her ‘she was a witch, and that she knew she was a
witch.’ She was conscious of her innocence, and felt that she was
oppressed, outraged, trampled upon, and about to be murdered,
under the forms of law; and her indignation was roused against her
persecutors. She could not bear in silence the cruel aspersion; and
although she was about to be launched into eternity, the torrent of
her feelings could not be restrained, but burst upon the head of him
who uttered the false accusation. ‘You are a liar,’ said she. ‘I am no
more a witch than you are a wizard; and if you take away my life,
God will give you blood to drink.’ Hutchinson says that, in his day,
there was a tradition among the people of Salem, and it has
descended to the present time, that the manner of Mr. Noyes’ death
strangely verified the prediction thus wrung from the incensed spirit
of the dying woman. He was exceedingly corpulent, of a plethoric
habit, and died of an internal hemorrhage, bleeding profusely at the
mouth.” (Vol. ii. p. 269.)
When she had been in her grave nearly twenty years, her
representatives—little Dorcas perhaps for one—were presented with
thirty pounds sterling, as a grant from the Crown, as compensation
for the mistake of hanging her without reason and against evidence.

THE TOWNE SISTERS.

In the early part of the century, a devout family named Towne

were living at Great Yarmouth, in the English county of Norfolk.
About the time of the King’s execution they emigrated to
Massachusetts. William Towne and his wife carried with them two
daughters; and another daughter and a son were born to them
afterward in Salem. The three daughters were baptized at long
intervals, and the eldest, Rebecca, must have been at least twenty
years older than Sarah, and a dozen or more years older than Mary.
A sketch of the fate of these three sisters contains within it the
history of a century.
 On the map which Mr. Upham presents us with, one of the most
conspicuous estates is an inclosure of 300 acres, which had a
significant story of its own—too long for us to enter upon. We need
only say that there had been many strifes about this property—fights
about boundaries, and stripping of timber, and a series of lawsuits.
Yet, from 1678 onward, the actual residents in the mansion had lived
in peace, taking no notice of wrangles which did not, under the
conditions of purchase, affect them, but only the former proprietor.
The frontispiece of Mr. Upham’s book shows us what the mansion of
an opulent landowner was like in the early days of the colony. It is
the portrait of the house in which the eldest daughter of William
Towne was living at the date of the Salem Tragedy.
Rebecca, then the aged wife of Francis Nurse, was a great-
grandmother, and between seventy and eighty years of age. No old
age could have had a more lovely aspect than hers. Her husband
was, as he had always been, devoted to her, and the estate was a
colony of sons and daughters, and their wives and husbands; for
‘Landlord Nurse’ had divided his land between his four sons and
three sons-in-law, and had built homesteads for them all as they
married and settled. Mrs. Nurse was in full activity of faculty, except
being somewhat deaf from age; and her health was good, except for
certain infirmities of long standing, which it required the zeal and the
malice of such a divine as Mr. Parris to convert into “devil’s marks.”
As for her repute in the society of which she was the honored head,
we learn what it was by the testimony supplied by forty persons—
neighbors and householders—who were inquired of in regard to their
opinion of her in the day of her sore trial. Some of them had known
her above forty years; they had seen her bring up a large family in
uprightness; they had remarked the beauty of her Christian
profession and conduct; and had never heard or observed any evil of
her. This was Rebecca, the eldest.
The next, Mary, was now fifty-eight years old, the wife of
“Goodman Easty,” the owner of a large farm. She had seven
children, and was living in ease and welfare of every sort when
overtaken by the same calamity as her sister Nurse. Sarah, the
youngest, had married twice. Her present husband was Peter Cloyse,
whose name occurs in the parish records, and in various depositions
which show that he was a prominent citizen. When Mr. Parris was
publicly complaining of neglect in respect of firewood for the
parsonage, and of lukewarmness on the part of the hearers of his
services, “Landlord Nurse” was a member of the committee who had
to deal with him; and his relatives were probably among the majority
who were longing for Mr. Parris’ apparently inevitable departure. In
these circumstances, it was not altogether surprising that “the
afflicted children” trained in the parsonage parlor, ventured, after
their first successes, to name the honored “Goody Nurse” as one of
the allies lately acquired by Satan. They saw her here, there,
everywhere, when she was sitting quietly at home; they saw her
biting the black servants, choking, pinching, pricking women and
children; and if she was examined, devil’s marks would doubtless be
found upon her. She was examined by a jury of her own sex. Neither
the testimony of her sisters and daughters as to her infirmities, nor
the disgust of decent neighbors, nor the commonest suggestions of
reason and feeling, availed to save her from the injury of being
reported to have what the witnesses were looking for.
We have a glimpse of her in her home when the first conception
of her impending fate opened upon her. Four esteemed persons, one
of whom was her brother-in-law, Mr. Cloyse, made the following
deposition, in the prospect of the victim being dragged before the
public:
“We whose names are underwritten being desired to go to
Goodman Nurse, his house, to speak with his wife, and to tell her
that several of the afflicted persons mentioned her; and accordingly
we went, and we found her in a weak and low condition in body as
she told us, and had been sick almost a week. And we asked how it
was otherwise with her; and she said she blessed God for it, she had
more of his presence in this sickness than sometimes she have had,
but not so much as she desired; but she would, with the Apostle,
press forward to the mark; and many other places of Scripture to the
like purpose. And then of her own accord she began to speak of the
affliction that was among them, and in particular of Mr. Parris his
family, and how she was grieved for them, though she had not been
to see them, by reason of fits that she formerly used to have; for
people said it was awful to behold: but she pitied them with all her
heart, and went to God for them. But she said she heard that there
was persons spoke of that were as innocent as she was, she
believed; and after much to this purpose, we told her we heard that
she was spoken of also. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘if it be so, the will of the
Lord be done:’ she sat still awhile being as it were amazed; and then
she said, ‘Well, as to this thing I am as innocent as the child unborn;
but surely,’ she said, ‘what sin hath God found out in me unrepented
of, that he should lay such an affliction upon me in my old age?’ and,
according to our best observation, we could not discern that she
knew what we came for before we told her.
Israel Porter, Daniel Andrew,
Elizabeth Porter, Peter Cloyse.”

On the 22d of March she was brought into the thronged meeting-
house to be accused before the magistrates, and to answer as she
best could. We must pass over those painful pages, where nonsense,
spasms of hysteria, new and strange to their worships, cunning,
cruelty, blasphemy, indecency, turned the house of prayer into a hell
for the time. The aged woman could explain nothing. She simply
asserted her innocence, and supposed that some evil spirit was at
work. One thing more she could do—she could endure with
calmness malice and injustice which are too much for our composure
at a distance of nearly two centuries. She felt the animus of her
enemies, and she pointed out how they perverted whatever she
said; but no impatient word escaped her. She was evidently as
perplexed as anybody present. When weary and disheartened, and
worn out with the noise and the numbers and the hysterics of the
“afflicted,” her head drooped on one shoulder. Immediately all the
“afflicted” had twisted necks, and rude hands seized her head to set
it upright, “lest other necks should be broken by her ill offices.”
Everything went against her, and the result was what had been
hoped by the agitators. The venerable matron was carried to jail and
put in irons.

DEPOSITIONS OF PARRIS AND HIS TOOLS.

Now Mr. Parris’ time had arrived, and he broadly accused her of
murder, employing for the purpose a fitting instrument—Mrs. Ann
Putnam, the mother of one of the afflicted children, and herself of
highly nervous temperament, undisciplined mind, and absolute
devotedness to her pastor. Her deposition, preceded by a short one
of Mr. Parris, will show the quality of the evidence on which judicial
murder was inflicted:
“Mr. Parris gave in a deposition against her; from which it appears,
that, a certain person being sick, Mercy Lewis was sent for. She was
struck dumb on entering the chamber. She was asked to hold up her
hand if she saw any of the witches afflicting the patient. Presently
she held up her hand, then fell into a trance; and after a while,
coming to herself, said that she saw the spectre of Goody Nurse and
Goody Carrier having hold of the head of the sick man. Mr. Parris
swore to this statement with the utmost confidence in Mercy’s
declarations.” (Vol. ii. p. 275.)
“The deposition of Ann Putnam, the wife of Thomas Putnam, aged
about thirty years, who testifieth and saith, that on March 18, 1692,
I being wearied out in helping to tend my poor afflicted child and
maid, about the middle of the afternoon I lay me down on the bed
to take a little rest; and immediately I was almost pressed and
choked to death, that had it not been for the mercy of a gracious
God and the help of those that were with me, I could not have lived
many moments; and presently I saw the apparition of Martha Corey,
who did torture me so as I can not express, ready to tear me all to
pieces, and then departed from me a little while; but, before I could
recover strength or well take breath, the apparition of Martha Corey
fell upon me again with dreadful tortures, and hellish temptation to
go along with her. And she also brought to me a little red book in
her hand, and a black pen, urging me vehemently to write in her
book; and several times that day she did most grievously torture me,
almost ready to kill me. And on the 19th of March, Martha Corey
again appeared to me; and also Rebecca Nurse, the wife of Francis
Nurse, Sr.; and they both did torture me a great many times this
day, with such tortures as no tongue can express, because I would
not yield to their hellish temptations, that, had I not been upheld by
an Almighty arm, I could not have lived while night. The 20th of
March, being Sabbath-day, I had a great deal of respite between my
fits. 21st of March being the day of the examination of Martha Corey,
I had not many fits, though I was very weak; my strength being, as
I thought, almost gone; but, on 22d of March, 1692, the apparition
of Rebecca Nurse did again set upon me in a most dreadful manner,
very early in the morning, as soon as it was well light. And now she
appeared to me only in her shift, and brought a little red book in her
hand, urging me vehemently to write in her book; and, because I
would not yield to her hellish temptations, she threatened to tear my
soul out of my body, blasphemously denying the blessed God, and
the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to save my soul; and denying
several places of Scripture, which I told her of, to repel her hellish
temptations. And for near two hours together, at this time, the
apparition of Rebecca Nurse did tempt and torture me, and also the
greater part of this day, with but very little respite. 23d of March, am
again afflicted by the apparitions of Rebecca Nurse and Martha
Corey, but chiefly by Rebecca Nurse. 24th of March, being the day of
the examination of Rebecca Nurse, I was several times afflicted in
the morning by the apparition of Rebecca Nurse, but most dreadfully
tortured by her in the time of her examination, insomuch that the
honored magistrates gave my husband leave to carry me out of the
meeting-house; and, as soon as I was carried out of the meeting-
house doors, it pleased Almighty God, for his free grace and mercy’s
sake, to deliver me out of the paws of those roaring lions, and jaws
of those tearing bears, that, ever since that time, they have not had
power so to afflict me until this May 31, 1692. At the same moment
that I was hearing my evidence read by the honored magistrates, to
take my oath, I was again re-assaulted and tortured by my before-
mentioned tormentor, Rebecca Nurse.” “The testimony of Ann
Putnam, Jr., witnesseth and saith, that, being in the room where her
mother was afflicted, she saw Martha Corey, Sarah Cloyse, and
Rebecca Nurse, or their apparitions, upon her mother.”
“Mrs. Ann Putnam made another deposition under oath at the
same trial, which shows that she was determined to overwhelm the
prisoner by the multitude of her charges. She says that Rebecca
Nurse’s apparition declared to her that ‘she had killed Benjamin
Houlton, John Fuller, and Rebecca Shepherd;’ and that she and her
sister Cloyse, and Edward Bishop’s wife, had killed young John
Putnam’s child; and she further deposed as followeth: ‘Immediately
there did appear to me six children in winding-sheets, which called
me aunt, which did most grievously affright me; and they told me
that they were my sister Baker’s children of Boston; and that Goody
Nurse, and Mistress Corey of Charlestown, and an old deaf woman
at Boston, had murdered them, and charged me to go and tell these
things to the magistrates, or else they would tear me to pieces, for
their blood did cry for vengeance. Also there appeared to me my
own sister Bayley and three of her children in winding-sheets, and
told me that Goody Nurse had murdered them.’” (Vol. ii. p. 278.)
All the efforts made to procure testimony against the venerable
gentlewoman’s character issued in a charge that she had so “railed
at” a neighbor for allowing his pigs to get into her field that, some
short time after, early in the morning, he had a sort of fit in his own
entry, and languished in health from that day, and died in a fit at the
end of the summer. “He departed this life by a cruel death,”
murdered by Goody Nurse. The jury did not consider this ground
enough for hanging the old lady, who had been the ornament of
their church and the glory of their village and its society. Their
verdict was “Not Guilty.” Not for a moment, however, could the
prisoner and her family hope that their trial was over. The outside
crowd clamored; the “afflicted” howled and struggled; one judge
declared himself dissatisfied; another promised to have her indicted
anew; and the Chief Justice pointed out a phrase of the prisoner’s
which might be made to signify that she was one of the accused
gang in guilt, as well as in jeopardy. It might really seem as if the
authorities were all driveling together, when we see the ingenuity
and persistence with which they discussed those three words, “of
our company.” Her remonstrance ought to have moved them:
“I intended no otherwise than as they were prisoners with us, and
therefore did then, and yet do, judge them not legal evidence
against their fellow-prisoners. And I being something hard of hearing
and full of grief, none informing me how the Court took up my
words, therefore had no opportunity to declare what I intended
when I said they were of our company.” (Vol. ii. p. 285.)
The foreman of the jury would have taken the favorable view of
this matter, and have allowed full consideration, while other jurymen
were eager to recall the mistake of their verdict; but the prisoner’s
silence, from failing to hear when she was expected to explain,
turned the foreman against her, and caused him to declare,
“whereupon these words were to me a principal evidence against
her.” Still, it seemed too monstrous to hang her. After her
condemnation, the Governor reprieved her; probably on the ground
of the illegality of setting aside the first verdict of the jury, in the
absence of any new evidence. But the outcry against mercy was so
fierce that the Governor withdrew his reprieve.

GOODY NURSE’S EXCOMMUNICATION.

On the next Sunday there was a scene in the church, the record of
which was afterward annotated by the church members in a spirit of
grief and humiliation. After sacrament the elders propounded to the
church, and the congregation unanimously agreed, that Sister Nurse,
being convicted as a witch by the court, should be excommunicated
in the afternoon of the same day. The place was thronged; the
reverend elders were in the pulpit; the deacons presided below; the
sheriff and his officers brought in the witch, and led her up the
broad aisle, her chains clanking as she moved. As she stood in the
middle of the aisle, the Reverend Mr. Noyes pronounced her
sentence of expulsion from the Church on earth, and from all hope
of salvation hereafter. As she had given her soul to Satan, she was
delivered over to him for ever. She was aware that every eye
regarded her with horror and hate, unapproached under any other
circumstances; but it appears that she was able to sustain it. She
was still calm and at peace on that day, and during the fortnight of
final waiting. When the time came, she traversed the streets of
Salem between houses in which she had been an honored guest,
and surrounded by well-known faces; and then there was the hard
task, for her aged limbs, of climbing the rocky and steep path on
Witches’ Hill to the place where the gibbets stood in a row, and the
hangman was waiting for her, and for Sarah Good, and several more
of whom Salem chose to be rid that day. It was the 19th of July,
1692. The bodies were put out of the way on the hill, like so many
dead dogs; but this one did not remain there long. By pious hands it
was—nobody knew when—brought home to the domestic cemetery,
where the next generation pointed out the grave, next to her
husband’s, and surrounded by those of her children. As for her
repute, Hutchinson, the historian, tells us that even
excommunication could not permanently disgrace her. “Her life and
conversation had been such, that the remembrance thereof, in a
short time after, wiped off all the reproach occasioned by the civil or
ecclesiastical sentence against her.” (Vol. ii. p. 292.)
[Great God! and is this the road our ancestors had to travel in
their pilgrimage in quest of freedom and Christianity? Are these the
fruits of the misunderstood doctrine of total depravity?]
Thus much comfort her husband had till he died in 1695. In a little
while none of his eight children remained unmarried, and he wound
up his affairs. He gave over the homestead to his son Samuel, and
divided all he had among the others, reserving only a mare and her
saddle, some favorite articles of furniture, and £14 a year, with a
right to call on his children for any further amount that might be
needful. He made no will, and his children made no difficulties, but
tended his latter days, and laid him in his own ground, when at
seventy-seven years old he died.
In 1711, the authorities of the Province, sanctioned by the Council
of Queen Anne, proposed such reparation as their heart and
conscience suggested. They made a grant to the representatives of
Rebecca Nurse of £25! In the following year something better was
done, on the petition of the son Samuel who inhabited the
homestead. A church meeting was called; the facts of the
excommunication of twenty years before were recited, and a
reversal was proposed, “the General Court having taken off the
attainder, and the testimony on which she was convicted being not
now so satisfactory to ourselves and others as it was generally in
that hour of darkness and temptation.” The remorseful congregation
blotted out the record in the church book, “humbly requesting that
the merciful God would pardon whatsoever sin, error, or mistake was
in the application of that censure, and of the whole affair, through
our merciful High Priest, who knoweth how to have compassion on
the ignorant, and those that are out of the way.” (Vol. ii. p. 483.)

MARY EASTY.

Such was the fate of Rebecca, the eldest of the three sisters.
Mary, the next—once her playmate on the sands of Yarmouth, in the
old country—was her companion to the last, in love and destiny. Mrs.
Easty was arrested, with many other accused persons, on the 21st
of April, while her sister was in jail in irons. The testimony against
her was a mere repetition of the charges of torturing, strangling,
pricking, and pinching Mr. Parris’ young friends, and rendering them
dumb, or blind, or amazed. Mrs. Easty was evidently so astonished
and perplexed by the assertions of the children, that the magistrates
inquired of the voluble witnesses whether they might not be
mistaken. As they were positive, and Mrs. Easty could say only that
she supposed it was “a bad spirit,” but did not know “whether it was
witchcraft or not,” there was nothing to be done but to send her to
prison and put her in irons. The next we hear of her is, that on the
18th of May she was free. The authorities, it seems, would not
detain her on such evidence as was offered. She was at large for
two days, and no more. The convulsions and tortures of the children
returned instantly, on the news being told of Goody Easty being
abroad again; and the ministers, and elders, and deacons, and all
the zealous antagonists of Satan went to work so vigorously to get
up a fresh case, that they bore down all before them. Mercy Lewis
was so near death under the hands of Mrs. Easty’s apparition that
she was crying out “Dear Lord! receive my soul!” and thus there was
clearly no time to be lost; and this choking and convulsion, says an
eminent citizen, acting as a witness, “occurred very often until such
time as we understood Mary Easty was laid in irons.”
There she was lying when her sister Nurse was tried,
excommunicated, and executed; and to the agony of all this was
added the arrest of her sister Sarah, Mrs. Cloyse. But she had such
strength as kept her serene up to the moment of her death on the
gibbet on the 22d of September following. We would fain give, if we
had room, the petition of the two sisters, Mrs. Easty and Mrs.
Cloyse, to the court, when their trial was pending; but we can make
room only for the last clause of its reasoning and remonstrance.
“Thirdly, that the testimony of witches, or such as are afflicted as
is supposed by witches, may not be improved to condemn us
without other legal evidence concurring. We hope the honored Court
and jury will be so tender of the lives of such as we are, who have
for many years lived under the unblemished reputation of
Christianity, as not to condemn them without a fair and equal
hearing of what may be said for us as well as against us. And your
poor suppliants shall be bound always to pray, etc.” (Vol. ii. p. 326.)
Still more affecting is the Memorial of Mrs. Easty when under
sentence of death and fully aware of the hopelessness of her case.
She addresses the judges, the magistrates, and the reverend
ministers, imploring them to consider what they are doing, and how
far their course in regard to accused persons is consistent with the
principles and rules of justice. She asks nothing for herself; she is
satisfied with her own innocency, and certain of her doom on earth
and her hope in heaven. What she desires is to induce the
authorities to take time, to use caution in receiving and strictness in
sifting testimony; and so shall they ascertain the truth, and absolve
the innocent, the blessing of God being upon their conscientious
endeavors. We do not know of any effect produced by her warning
and remonstrance; but we find her case estimated, twenty years
afterward, as meriting a compensation of £20! [About one hundred
dollars.] Before setting forth from the jail to the Witches’ Hill, on the
day of her death, she serenely bade farewell to her husband, her
many children, and her friends, some of whom related afterward
that “her sayings were as serious, religious, distinct, and affectionate
as could well be expressed, drawing tears from the eyes of almost all
present.”

MRS. CLOYSE.

The third of this family of dignified gentlewomen seems to have

had a keener sensibility than her sisters, or a frame less strong to
endure the shocks prepared and inflicted by the malice of the
enemy. Some of the incidents of her implication in the great calamity
are almost too moving to be dwelt on, even in a remote time and
country. Mrs. Cloyse drew ill-will upon herself at the outset by doing
as her brother and sister Nurse did. They all absented themselves
from the examinations in the church, and, when the interruptions of
the services became too flagrant, from Sabbath worship; and they
said they took that course because they disapproved of the
permission given to the profanation of the place and the service.
They were communicants, and persons of consideration, both in
regard to character and position; and their quiet disapprobation of
the proceedings of the ministers and their company of accusers
subjected them to the full fury of clerical wrath and womanish spite.
When the first examination of Mrs. Nurse took place, Mrs. Cloyse
was of course overwhelmed with horror and grief. The next Sunday,
however, was Sacrament Sunday; and she and her husband
considered it their duty to attend the ordinance. The effort to Mrs.
Cloyse was so great that when Mr. Parris gave out his text, “One of
you is a devil. He spake of Judas Iscariot,” etc., and when he opened
his discourse with references in his special manner to the
transactions of the week, the afflicted sister of the last victim could
not endure the outrage. She left the meeting. There was a fresh
wind, and the door slammed as she went out, fixing the attention of
all present, just as Mr. Parris could have desired. She had not to wait
long for the consequences. On the 4th of April she was apprehended
with several others; and on the 11th her examination took place, the
questions being framed to suit the evidence known to be
forthcoming, and Mr. Parris being the secretary for the occasion. The
witness in one case was asked whether she saw a company eating
and drinking at Mr. Parris’, and she replied, as expected, that she
did. “What were they eating and drinking?” Of course, it was the
Devil’s sacrament; and Mr. Parris, by leading questions, brought out
the testimony that about forty persons partook of that hell-
sacrament, Mrs. Cloyse and Sarah Good being the two deacons!
When accused of the usual practices of cruelty to these innocent
suffering children, and to the ugly, hulking Indian slave, who
pretended to show the marks of her teeth, Mrs. Cloyse gave some
vent to her feelings. “When did I hurt thee?” “A great many times,”
said the Indian. “O, you are a grievous liar!” exclaimed she. But the
wrath gave way under the soul-sickness which overcame her when
charged with biting and pinching a black man, and throttling
children, and serving their blood at the blasphemous supper. Her
sisters in prison, her husband accused with her, and young girls—
mere children—now manifesting a devilish cruelty to her, who had
felt nothing but good-will to them—she could not sustain herself
before the assembly whose eyes were upon her. She sank down,
calling for water. She fainted on the floor, and some of the accusing
children cried out, “Oh! her spirit has gone to prison to her sister
Nurse!” From that examination she was herself carried to prison.
When she joined her sister Easty in the petition to the Court in the
next summer, she certainly had no idea of escaping the gallows; but
it does not appear that she was ever brought to trial. Mr. Parris
certainly never relented; for we find him from time to time torturing
the feelings of this and every other family whom he supposed to be
anything but affectionate to him. Some of the incidents would be
almost incredible to us if they were not recorded in the church and
parish books in Mr. Parris’ own distinct handwriting.
 On the 14th of August, when the corpse of Rebecca Nurse was
lying among the rocks on the Witches’ Hill, and her two sisters were
in irons in Boston jail (for Boston had now taken the affair out of the
hands of the unaided Salem authorities), and his predecessor, Mr.
Burroughs, was awaiting his execution, Mr. Parris invited his church
members to remain after service to hear something that he had to
say. He had to point out to the vigilance of the church that Samuel
Nurse, the son of Rebecca, and his wife, and Peter Cloyse and
certain others, of late had failed to join the brethren at the Lord’s
table, and had, except Samuel Nurse, rarely appeared at ordinary
worship. These outraged and mourning relatives of the accused
sisters were decreed to be visited by certain pious representatives of
the church, and the reason of their absence to be demanded. The
minister, the two deacons, and a chief member were appointed to
this fearful task. The report delivered in on the 31st of August was:
“Brother Tarbell proves sick, unmeet for discourse; Brother Cloyse
hard to be found at home, being often with his wife in the prison at
Ipswich for witchcraft; and Brother Samuel Nurse, and sometimes
his wife, attends our public meeting, and he the sacrament, 11th of
September, 1692: upon all which we chose to wait further.” (Vol. ii.
p. 486.)
This decision to pause was noted as the first token of the decline
of the power of the ministers. Mr. Parris was sorely unwilling to yield
even this much advantage to Satan—that is, to family affection and
instinct of justice. But his position was further lowered by the
departure from the parish of some of the most eminent members of
its society. Mr. Cloyse never brought his family to the Village again,
when his wife was once out of prison; and the name disappears
from the history of Salem.

THE PROCTOR FAMILY.

We have sketched the life of one family out of many, and we will
leave the rest for such of our readers as may choose to learn more.
Some of the statements in the book before us disclose a whole
family history in a few words; as the following in relation to John
Proctor and his wife:
“The bitterness of the prosecutors against Proctor was so
vehement that they not only arrested, and tried to destroy, his wife
and all his family above the age of infancy, in Salem, but all her
relatives in Lynn, many of whom were thrown into prison. The
helpless children were left destitute, and the house swept of its
provisions by the sheriff. Proctor’s wife gave birth to a child about a
fortnight after his execution. This indicates to what alone she owed
her life. John Proctor had spoken so boldly against the proceedings,
and all who had part in them, that it was felt to be necessary to put
him out of the way.” (Vol. ii. p. 312.)
The Rev. Mr. Noyes, the worthy coadjutor of Mr. Parris, refused to
pray with Mr. Proctor before his death, unless he would confess; and
the more danger there seemed to be of a revival of pity, humility,
and reason, the more zealous waxed the wrath of the pious pastors
against the Enemy of Souls. When, on the fearful 22d of September,
Mr. Noyes stood looking at the execution, he exclaimed that it was a
sad thing to see eight firebrands of hell hanging there! The spectacle
was never seen again on Witches’ Hill.

THE JACOBS FAMILY.

The Jacobs family was signalized by the confession of one of its

members—Margaret, one of the “afflicted” girls. She brought her
grandfather to the gallows, and suffered as much as a weak,
ignorant, impressionable person under evil influences could suffer
from doubt and remorse. But she married well seven years afterward
—still feeling enough in regard to the past to refuse to be married by
Mr. Noyes. She deserved such peace of mind as she obtained, for
she retracted the confession of witchcraft which she had made, and
went to prison. It was too late then to save her victims, Mr.
Burroughs and her grandfather, but she obtained their full and free
forgiveness. At that time this was the condition of the family:
 “No account has come to us of the deportment of George Jacobs,
Sr., at his execution. As he was remarkable in life for the firmness of
his mind, so he probably was in death. He had made his will before
the delusion arose. It is dated January 29, 1692, and shows that he,
like Proctor, had a considerable estate.... In his infirm old age he had
been condemned to die for a crime of which he knew himself
innocent, and which there is some reason to believe he did not think
any one capable of committing. He regarded the whole thing as a
wicked conspiracy and absurd fabrication. He had to end his long life
upon a scaffold in a week from that day. His house was desolated,
and his property sequestered. His only son, charged with the same
crime, had eluded the sheriff—leaving his family, in the hurry of his
flight, unprovided for—and was an exile in foreign lands. The crazy
wife of that son was in prison and in chains, waiting trial on the
same charge; her little children, including an unweaned infant, left in
a deserted and destitute condition in the woods. The older children
were scattered he knew not where, while one of them had
completed the bitterness of his lot by becoming a confessor, upon
being arrested with her mother as a witch. This granddaughter,
Margaret, overwhelmed with fright and horror, bewildered by the
statements of the accusers, and controlled probably by the
arguments and arbitrary methods of address employed by her
minister, Mr. Noyes—whose peculiar function in those proceedings
seems to have been to drive persons accused to make confession—
had been betrayed into that position, and became a confessor and
accuser of others.” (Vol. ii. p. 312.)

GILES AND MARTHA COREY.

The life and death of a prominent citizen, Giles Corey, should not
be altogether passed over in a survey of such a community and such
a time. He had land, and was called “Goodman Corey;” but he was
unpopular from being too rough for even so young a state of society.
He was once tried for the death of a man whom he had used
roughly, but he was only fined. He had strifes and lawsuits with his
neighbors; but he won three wives, and there was due affection
between him and his children. He was eighty years old when the
Witch Delusion broke out, and was living alone with his wife Martha
—a devout woman who spent much of her time on her knees,
praying against the snares of Satan, that is, the delusion about
witchcraft. She spoke freely of the tricks of the children, the
blindness of the magistrates, and the falling away of many from
common sense and the word of God; and while her husband
attended every public meeting, she stayed at home to pray. In his
fanaticism he quarreled with her, and she was at once marked out
for a victim, and one of the earliest. When visited by examiners, she
smiled, and conversed with entire composure, declaring that she was
no witch, and that “she did not think that there were any witches.”
By such sayings, and by the expressions of vexation that fell from
her husband, and the fanaticism of two of her four sons-in-law, she
was soon brought to extremity. But her husband was presently
under accusation too; and much amazed he evidently was at his
position. His wife was one of the eight “firebrands of hell” whom Mr.
Noyes saw swung off on the 22d of September. “Martha Corey,” said
the record, “protesting her innocency, concluded her life with an
eminent prayer on the scaffold.” Her husband had been supposed
certain to die in the same way; but he had chosen a different one.
His anguish at his rash folly at the outset of the delusion excited the
strongest desire to bear testimony on behalf of his wife and other
innocent persons, and to give an emphatic blessing to the two sons-
in-law who had been brave and faithful in his wife’s cause. He
executed a deed by which he presented his excellent children with
his property in honor of their mother’s memory; and, aware that if
tried he would be condemned and executed, and his property
forfeited, he resolved not to plead, and to submit to the
consequence of standing mute. Old as he was, he endured it. He
stood mute, and the court had, as the authorities believed, no
alternative. He was pressed to death, as devoted husbands and
fathers were, here and there, in the Middle Ages, when they chose
to save their families from the consequences of attainders by dying
untried. We will not sicken our readers with the details of the slow,
cruel, and disgusting death. He bore it, only praying for heavier
weights to shorten his agony. Such a death and such a testimony,
and the execution of his wife two days later, weighed on every heart
in the community; and no revival of old charges against the rough
colonist had any effect in the presence of such an act as his last. He
was long believed to haunt the places where he lived and died; and
the attempt made by the ministers and one of their “afflicted”
agents to impress the church and society with a vision which
announced his damnation, was a complete failure. Cotton Mather
showed that Ann Putnam had received a divine communication,
proving Giles Corey a murderer; and Ann Putnam’s father laid the
facts before the judge; but it was too late now for visions, and for
insinuations to the judges, and for clerical agitation to have any
success. Brother Noyes hurried on a church meeting while Giles
Corey was actually lying under the weights, to excommunicate him
for witchcraft on the one hand, or suicide on the other; and the
ordinance was passed. But it was of no avail against the rising tide
of reason and sympathy. This was the last vision, and the last
attempt to establish one in Salem, if not in the Province. It remained
for Mr. Noyes, and the Mathers, and Mr. Parris, and every clergyman
concerned, to endure the popular hatred and their own self-
questioning for the rest of their days. The lay authorities were
stricken with remorse and humbled with grief; but their share of the
retribution was more endurable than that of the pastors who had
proved so wolfish toward their flocks.

DECLINE OF THE DELUSION.

In the month of September, 1692, they believed themselves in the

thick of “the fight between the Devil and the Lamb.” Cotton Mather
was nimble and triumphant on the Witches’ Hill whenever there
were “firebrands of hell” swinging there; and they all hoped to do
much good work for the Lord yet, for they had lists of suspected
persons in their pockets, who must be brought into the courts month
by month, and carted off to the hill. One of the gayest and most
complacent letters on the subject of this “fight” in the
correspondence of Cotton Mather is dated on the 20th of September,
1692, within a month of the day when he was improving the
occasion at the foot of the gallows where the former pastor, Rev.
George Burroughs, and four others were hung. In the interval fifteen
more received sentence of death; Giles Corey had died his fearful
death the day before; and in two days after, Corey’s widow and
seven more were hanged. Mather, Noyes, and Parris had no idea
that these eight would be the last. But so it was. Thus far, one only
had escaped after being made sure of in the courts. The married
daughter of a clergyman had been condemned, was reprieved by the
Governor, and was at last discharged on the ground of the
insufficiency of the evidence. Henceforth, after that fearful
September day, no evidence was found sufficient. The accusers had
grown too audacious in their selection of victims; their clerical
patrons had become too openly determined to give no quarter. The
Rev. Francis Dane signed memorials to the Legislature and the
Courts on the 18th of October, against the prosecutions. He had
reason to know something about them, for we hear of nine at least
of his children, grandchildren, relatives, and servants who had been
brought under accusation. He pointed out the snare by which the
public mind, as well as the accused themselves, had been misled—
the escape afforded to such as would confess. When one spoke out,
others followed. When a reasonable explanation was afforded,
ordinary people were only too thankful to seize upon it. Though the
prisons were filled, and the courts occupied over and over again,
there were no more horrors; the accused were all acquitted; and in
the following May, Sir William Phipps discharged all the prisoners by
proclamation. “Such a jail-delivery has never been known in New
England,” is the testimony handed down. The Governor was aware
that the clergy, magistrates, and judges, hitherto active, were full of
wrath at his course but public opinion now demanded a reversal of
the administration of the last fearful year.

THE PHYSIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL CAUSES OF THE TROUBLE.

As to the striking feature of the case—the confessions of so large

a proportion of the accused—Mr. Upham manifests the perplexity
which we encounter in almost all narrators of similar scenes. In all
countries and times in which trials for witchcraft have taken place,
we find the historians dealing anxiously with the question—how it
could happen that so many persons declared themselves guilty of an
impossible offense, when the confession must seal their doom? The
solution most commonly offered is one that may apply to a case
here and there, but certainly can not be accepted as disposing of
any large number. It is assumed that the victim preferred being
killed at once to living on under suspicion, insult, and ill-will, under
the imputation of having dealt with the Devil. Probable as this may
be in the case of a stout-hearted, reasoning, forecasting person
possessed of nerve to carry out a policy of suicide, it can never be
believed of any considerable proportion of the ordinary run of old
men and women charged with sorcery. The love of life and the
horror of a cruel death at the hands of the mob or of the hangman
are too strong to admit of a deliberate sacrifice so bold, on the part
of terrified and distracted old people like the vast majority of the
accused; while the few of a higher order, clearer in mind and
stronger in nerve, would not be likely to effect their escape from an
unhappy life by a lie of the utmost conceivable gravity. If, in the
Salem case, life was saved by confession toward the last, it was for a
special reason; and it seems to be a singular instance of such a
mode of escape. Some other mode of explanation is needed; and
the observations of modern inquiry supply it. There can be no doubt
now that the sufferers under nervous disturbances, the subjects of
abnormal condition, found themselves in possession of strange
faculties, and thought themselves able to do new and wonderful
things. When urged to explain how it was, they could only suppose,
as so many of the Salem victims did, that it was by “some evil
spirit;” and except where there was such an intervening agency as
Mr. Parris’ “circle,” the only supposition was that the intercourse
between the Evil Spirit and themselves was direct. It is impossible
even now to witness the curious phenomena of somnambulism and
catalepsy without a keen sense of how natural and even inevitable it
was for similar subjects of the Middle Ages and in Puritan times to
believe themselves ensnared by Satan, and actually endowed with
his gifts, and to confess their calamity, as the only relief to their
scared and miserable minds. This explanation seems not to have
occurred to Mr. Upham; and, for want of it, he falls into great
amazement at the elaborate artifice with which the sufferers
invented their confessions, and adapted them to the state of mind of
the authorities and the public. With the right key in his hand, he
would have seen only what was simple and natural where he now
bids us marvel at the pitch of artfulness and skill attained by poor
wretches scared out of their natural wits.
The spectacle of the ruin that was left is very melancholy. Orphan
children were dispersed; homes were shut up, and properties lost;
and what the temper was in which these transactions left the
churches and the village, and the society of the towns, the pastors
and the flocks, the Lord’s table, the social gathering, the justice hall,
the market, and every place where men were wont to meet, we can
conceive. It was evidently long before anything like a reasonable and
genial temper returned to society in and about Salem. The
acknowledgments of error made long after were half-hearted, and so
were the expressions of grief and pity in regard to the intolerable
woes of the victims. It is scarcely intelligible how the admissions on
behalf of the wronged should have been so reluctant, and the
sympathy with the devoted love of their nearest and dearest so cold.
We must cite what Mr. Upham says in honor of these last, for such
solace is needed:
“While, in the course of our story, we have witnessed some
shocking instances of the violation of the most sacred affections and
obligations of life, in husbands and wives, parents and children,
testifying against each other, and exerting themselves for mutual
destruction, we must not overlook the many instances in which filial,
parental, and fraternal fidelity and love have shone conspicuously. It
was dangerous to befriend an accused person. Proctor stood by his
wife to protect her, and it cost him his life. Children protested
against the treatment of their parents, and they were all thrown into
prison. Daniel Andrew, a citizen of high standing, who had been
deputy to the General Court, asserted, in the boldest language, his
belief of Rebecca Nurse’s innocence; and he had to fly the country to
save his life. Many devoted sons and daughters clung to their
parents, visited them in prison in defiance of a blood-thirsty mob;
kept by their side on the way to execution; expressed their love,
sympathy, and reverence to the last; and, by brave and perilous
enterprise, got possession of their remains, and bore them back
under the cover of midnight to their own thresholds, and to graves
kept consecrated by their prayers and tears. One noble young man
is said to have effected his mother’s escape from the jail, and
secreted her in the woods until after the delusion had passed away,
provided food and clothing for her, erected a wigwam for her shelter,
and surrounded her with every comfort her situation would admit of.
The poor creature must, however, have endured a great amount of
suffering; for one of her larger limbs was fractured in the all but
desperate attempt to rescue her from the prison walls.” (Vol. ii. p.
348.)
The act of reversal of attainder, passed early in the next century,
tells us that “some of the principal accusers and witnesses in those
dark and severe prosecutions have since discovered themselves to
be persons of profligate and vicious conversation;” and on no other
authority we are assured that, “not without spot before, they
became afterward abandoned to open vice.” This was doubtless true
of some; but of many it was not; and of this we shall have a word to
say presently.

THE LAST OF PARRIS.

Mr. Parris’ parsonage soon went to ruin, as did some of the

dwellings of the “afflicted” children, who learned and practiced
certain things in his house which he afterward pronounced to be arts
of Satan, and declared to have been pursued without his knowledge
and with the cognizance of only his servants (John and Tituba, the
Indian and the negress). Barn, and well, and garden disappeared in
a sorry tract of rough ground, and the dwelling became a mere
handful of broken bricks. The narrative of the pastor’s struggles and
devices to retain his pulpit is very interesting; but they are not
related to our object here; and all we need say is, that three sons
and sons-in-law of Mrs. Nurse measured their strength against his,
and, without having said an intemperate or superfluous word, or
swerved from the strictest rules of congregational action, sent him
out of the parish. He finally opined that “evil angels” had been
permitted to tempt him and his coadjutors on either hand; he
admitted that some mistakes had been made; and, said he, “I do
humbly own this day, before the Lord and his people, that God has
been righteously spitting in my face; and I desire to lie low under all
this reproach,” etc.; but the remonstrants could not again sit under
his ministry, and his brethren in the Province did not pretend to
exculpate him altogether. He buried his wife—against whom no
record remains—and departed with his children, the eldest of whom,
the playfellow of the “afflicted” children, he had sent away before
she had taken harm in the “circle.” He drifted from one small
outlying congregation to another, neglected and poor, restless and
untamed, though mortified, till he died in 1720. Mr. Noyes died
somewhat earlier. He is believed not to have undergone much
change, as to either his views or his temper. He was a kind-hearted
and amiable man when nothing came in the way; but he could hold
no terms with Satan; and in this he insisted to the last that he was
right.
Cotton Mather was the survivor of the other two. He died in 1728;
and he never was happy again after that last batch of executions. He
trusted to his merits, and the genius he exhibited under that
onslaught of Satan, to raise him to the highest post of clerical power
in the Province, and to make him—what he desired above all else—
President of Harvard University. Mr. Upham presents us with a
remarkable meditation written by the unhappy man, so simple and
ingenious that it is scarcely possible to read it gravely; but the
reader is not the less sensible of his misery. The argument is a sort
of remonstrance with God on the recompense his services have met
with. He has been appointed to serve the world, and the world does
not regard him; the negroes, and (who could believe it?) the
negroes are named Cotton Mather in contempt of him; the wise and
the unwise despise him; in every company he is avoided and left
alone; the female sex, and they speak basely of him; his relatives,
and they are such monsters that he may truly say, “I am a brother to
dragons;” the Government, and it heaps indignities upon him; the
University, and if he were a blockhead, it could not treat him worse
than it does. He is to serve all whom he can aid, and nobody ever
does anything for him; he is to serve all to whom he can be a helpful
and happy minister, and yet he is the most afflicted minister in the
country; and many consider his afflictions to be so many
miscarriages, and his sufferings in proportion to his sins. There was
no popularity or power for him from the hour when he stood to see
his brother Burroughs put to death on the Hill. He seems never to
have got over his surprise at his own failures; but he sank into
deeper mortification and a more childish peevishness to the end.

“ONE OF THE AFFLICTED”—HER CONFESSION.

Of only one of the class of express accusers—of the “afflicted”—

will we speak; but not because she was the only one reclaimed. One
bewildered child we have described as remorseful, and brave in her
remorse; and others married as they would hardly have done if they
had been among the “profligate.” Ann Putnam’s case remains the
most prominent, and the most pathetic. She was twelve years old
when the “circle” at Mr. Parris’ was formed. She had no check from
her parents, but much countenance and encouragement from her
morbidly-disposed mother. She has the bad distinction of having
been the last of the witnesses to declare a “vision” against a
suspected person; but, on the other hand, she has the honor, such
as it is, of having striven to humble herself before the memory of
her victims. When she was nineteen her father died, and her mother
followed within a fortnight, leaving the poor girl, in bad health and
with scanty means, to take care of a family of children so large that
there were eight, if not more, dependent on her. No doubt she was
aided, and she did what she could; but she died worn out at the age
of thirty-six. Ten years before that date she made her peace with the
Church and society by offering a public confession in the meeting-
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