''In pre-modern medical diagnosis, hysteria was defined as a morbidly excited condition
∑∑∂ Notes to Pages 248–51
providence.'' In the 1749 tax list, Capt. John Lyman is listed as one of the wealthier citizens of the town. James R. Trumbull, History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from Its Settlement in 1654, 2 vols. (Northampton, Mass., 1898, 1902), 2: 185.
19. The Works of Edwards furnish the following draft note with their transcription: ''In pre-modern medical diagnosis, hysteria was defined as a morbidly excited condition caused by a disturbance of the nervous system due to a disruption in uterine functions. See George Hartmann, The Family Physician (London, 1696); William Salmon, Medicine Practica: or, Practical Physick (London, 1692); and John Harris, The Divine Physician (London, 1767).'' Standard histories of hysteria agree that it was regarded as a nervous disorder in the eighteenth century, although by that time some were questioning its uterine origins. See Ilza Veith, Hysteria: The History of a Disease (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965), esp. 120–98. For a survey of historians' interpretations see Mark S. Micale, Approaching Hysteria: Disease and Its Interpretations (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995), 33–107. (I am also grateful to my colleague David Hartley for some comments on this topic.) Supporting the supposition that Sarah's di≈culties may have been related to a pregnancy is a notation in Edwards' account book, Beinecke, Works of Edwards transcription, that he sent for ''hysterick drops and powders'' in January 1745, which is about four to five months before the birth of Jonathan Edwards Jr. on May 28, 1745. That might also support the supposition that Dr. Mather wrote his prescription in December 1742, also four to five months before a birth.
20. Cf. Catherine Brekus, Strangers and Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America, 1740– 1845 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998), 38. Ava Chamberlain, ''Brides of Christ and Signs of Grace: Edwards' Sermon Series on the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins,'' in Stephen J. Stein, ed., Jonathan Edwards's Writings: Text, Context, Interpretation (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996), 3–18.
21. Amanda Porterfield, Female Piety in Puritan New England: The Emergence of Religious Humanism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), esp. chaps. 7–8. Cf. Porterfield, Feminine Spirituality in America: From Sarah Edwards to Martha Graham (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1980). My interpretations in this section have been helped by suggestions from Porterfield and other historians of gender cited.
22. Cf. Sandra M. Gustafson, Eloquence Is Power: Oratory and Performance in Early America, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000), 51–74. Julie Ellison, ''The Sociology of 'Holy Indi√erence': Sarah Edwards' Narrative,'' American Literature 56, no. 4 (December 1984): 479–95; and Porterfield, Feminine Spirituality.
23. Samuel Hopkins, ''Autobiography,'' in Edwards A. Park, ''Memoir,'' in The Works of Samuel Hopkins, 3 vols., ed. Edwards A. Park (Boston, 1852), 1: 16–18.
24. Ibid., 19. 25. Ibid., 22. 26. Samuel Hopkins, The Life and Character of the Late Reverend Mr. Jonathan Edwards (Boston, 1765), appendix 2, ''containing a Short Sketch of Mrs. Edwards's Life and Character,'' 92–98. Levin's reprint does not contain the appendices. On Edwards' discipline, see Hopkins, Life, 43.
27. Samuel Hopkins, ''Journal,'' July 23, 1743, in Park, ''Memoir,'' Works of Samuel Hopkins, 1: 49.
28. He also wrote a tribute to Esther after her untimely death, remarking on both her great beauty and intellect. Hopkins, Life, appendix 1, pp. 88–92.