• Genre: Rock
• Active: '90s, 2000s
• Major Members: Josh Gravelin, Whit Williams, Greg Thibeaux, Matt Hovis, Robert Harrison

Biography

A brilliant fusion of the Beatles, Squeeze, Guided By Voices, and some less obvious influences, Austin-based power poppers Cotton Mather are one of those rare power pop groups who transcend their inspirations to create powerful and original music of their own.

Formed in Austin in 1991, the original Cotton Mather (named of course after the famous Puritan preacher and author) lineup consisted of singer/guitarist Robert Harrison; his main foil, guitarist Whit Williams; bassist Matt Hovis; and drummer Greg Thibeaux, who doubled on guitar. This lineup recorded a demo, Crafty Flower Arranger, in 1992, which was never officially released but was widely bootlegged in the wake of the group's later success. Some tracks were re-recorded in far superior versions on the band's debut album, 1994's Cotton Is King. The Squeeze influence is particularly strong on this record; Harrison sounds uncannily like Glenn Tilbrook on several songs.

Hovis and Thibeaux split after Cotton Is King. Williams began to double on bass and Dana Mizer joined as the new drummer. The trio recorded their second album, 1998's Kontiki, on borrowed equipment in Harrison's garage, before handing the tapes over to producer Brad Jones to remix and add instruments to. The resulting album, a mélange of lo-fi production tropes and classic pop hooks, was rapturously received in the American pop underground, although its limited distribution kept it from breaking through in any meaningful way. Add the fact that Mizer left the group before the album was even released (although he does appear in the group photo on the sleeve) and it seemed like Cotton Mather were destined to fade into obscurity.

And they might have done just that, except for a fortuitous set of circumstances. Oasis guitarist and songwriter Noel Gallagher somehow got his hands on a copy of Kontiki, and in a rare moment of clarity, realized that what Cotton Mather was doing was a far superior and much more original version of what Oasis themselves had been attempting for years. Gallagher began talking up the American band to the British press, with the eventual result that the British psych-pop label Rainbow Quartz reissued Kontiki in the U.K. in late 1998. It was a massive indie hit, with the brilliant "My Before and After" even gaining a fair amount of radio airplay. Harrison and Williams quickly redrafted Mizer into the band and added new bassist Josh Gravelin for a successful U.K. tour, after which the foursome recorded 1999's EP Hotel Baltimore. The revived group began recording a third full-length, with Jones again producing, in early 2001. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide

Kontiki Buy this CD

Cotton Is King Buy this CD

Cotton Mather (1663-1728), Puritan clergyman, historian, and pioneering student of science, was an indefatigable man of letters. Of the third generation of a New England founding family, he is popularly associated with the Salem witchcraft trials.

Cotton Mather recorded the passing of an era. The Massachusetts Bay Colony had been a radical, Bible-based community of "saints," whose existence as an example to the rest of the world was to be safeguarded till Christ's second coming by the strictest tutelage of educated clergymen in all civil as well as ecclesiastical matters. In Mather's lifetime the separation of church and state and the development of the frontier and of a society absorbed in business and profits greatly increased popular apathy toward the church. The rise of democracy within the Colonies is seen in the disintegration of orthodox creeds and practices. American-born colonists felt estranged from Europe and its culture and turned to nature and to reason for the sources of their new identity. Rationalism and evangelism vied to replace orthodoxy.

Mather was both behind and ahead of his times. As an internationally known scholar and innovative scientist, he was ahead of his New England contemporaries. In his theories of child rearing his emphasis on indirection, persuasion, and rewards considerably anticipated the future. But on questions of ecclesiastical organization and in all matters relating to Harvard College, he adhered passionately to past example. He deplored New England's decline and eagerly anticipated a future day when all people would be brought to judgment and Christ's kingdom come.

Born in Boston on March 19, 1663, Cotton was the eldest son of Increase and Maria Mather and grandson of Richard Mather, the first minister of Dorchester, and of John Cotton, probably the most learned of first-generation American theologians. Increase Mather was minister to the Second Church in Boston, agent of the colony to England, and nonresident president of Harvard College from 1685 to 1701. He was the most productive man of letters of his generation. Cotton was a partner in all his father's endeavors.

Having made remarkable progress in Latin and Greek, Cotton was admitted to Harvard at the age of 12. He had begun studying Hebrew and showed great interest in philosophy and science. He read avidly. His father conferred Cotton's first degree at the age of 16. Cotton soon took up the study of medicine and, as a young man, attended meetings organized by Increase for scientific experimentation and discussion. At 19 he received his master's degree. He was made a fellow of Harvard College in 1690 and was involved in the affairs of the college throughout his life. One of his bitterest disappointments was that he was never asked to be its president.

Disappointment and bereavement marked Cotton Mather's life. In 1686 he married Abigail Philips; they had nine children. She died in 1702. In 1703 he married the widow Mrs. Elizabeth Hubbard; they had six children. She died in 1713. His last wife, Mrs. Lydia George, whom he married in 1715, went insane. Of his fifteen children, only six lived to maturity and only two survived him. Three widowed sisters depended largely on him, and he was burdened by severe financial problems.

Overly jealous where family pride was concerned, Mather dealt rancorously with opposition. Anxiety and depression, no doubt, contributed to an already impulsive and dictatorial nature. But his was a complex temperament. He was deeply introspective. When very young he began to read Scripture daily and to develop habits of prayer. His efforts to do good works and to perfect Christian attitudes lasted a lifetime. Tireless on behalf of any worthwhile project, he was both pragmatic and susceptible to change. His early bitter denunciations of other sects later gave way to a spirit of tolerance. His will to overcome reversals can be seen in his triumph over stammering - a childhood affliction so severe that he doubted his fitness for the pulpit. By his own efforts he corrected his stammering and in 1685 was ordained at the Second Church. He served as assistant minister until his father's death in 1723, when Cotton became minister.

A Many-faceted Career

For a time the Mathers dominated the life of Massachusetts colony. When Increase went secretly to England in 1688 to plead for the restoration of the Massachusetts charter, Cotton was left not only with the spiritual leadership of the Second Church but with responsibility for heading the opposition at home to James II, specifically to his representative, Governor Edmund Andros. Cotton was a ringleader in the "Happy Revolution," as he called it, of 1689, which fortunately for the insurgents coincided with the deposition in England of James II. In 1692, after a period of provisional government by magistrates who had served under the old charter, Increase, unable to regain that charter, returned to Boston with a new charter and a new governor, Sir William Phips. Both the new charter and Governor Phips's policies proved unpopular, and from this time on the Mathers' power declined.

Witchcraft Trials at Salem

One of Sir William's first acts in office was the establishment of a court to try the suspected witches recently arrested at Salem. Mather had attempted to demonstrate the reality of spirits, particularly of the demonic, in his study Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions… (1689). Although he had urged vigorous prosecution of the devil's work, he suggested punishment milder than execution for convicted witches. Mather's approach was both theological and scientific. He separated himself from the trials per se and in fact warned the judges against "spectral evidences," but his advice went unheeded. In his Magnalia Christi Americana (1702) Mather declared his disapproval of the methods used in the trials. But while they were going on, he had registered no public protest.

Clearly, politics, as well as theology and science, determined the Mathers' role in the witchcraft controversy. At the judges' request, Cotton, apparently unwillingly, agreed to write an apologetical account of a few of the trials. Phips, after all, had been baptized by Cotton and was Increase's appointment. The Wonders of the Invisible World (1693) was followed in 1700 by a work sponsored by the Mathers' opponents, entitled More Wonders of the Invisible World. Compiled by Robert Calef, a man skeptical of and outraged by the witchcraft accusations, it contained, without Cotton's permission, his account, written in 1693, of his investigations of a girl he believed bewitched. Mather again had focused on supernatural phenomena; he had made no attempt to start a prosecution. But by 1700 popular feeling had risen against the Salem trials, and the Mathers were firmly identified both with the causes of the hysteria and with the political appointees who made the tragic judgments. Most 19th-century historians place full responsibility for the trials with Cotton Mather; Brooks Adams called the trials themselves the central moral issue of the 17th century. To modern scholars, however, both allegations seem to overstate the case.

Other Ecclesiastical Controversies

A combination of forces effected the wane of the Mathers' influence. A new breed of more liberal and catholic men gathered in the recently established Brattle Church, under the leadership of Benjamin Coleman. These, with others, secured the removal of Increase from the presidency of Harvard in 1701. The House of Representatives appointed Cotton president, but the electors of the college overruled their action and passed him by. Cotton then directed his attention to Yale. But when Yale's president, Timothy Cutler, resigned to join the Anglican Church in 1722, Cotton, apparently, refused the invitation to replace him. This was Cotton's last opportunity for high office.

During this period the Mathers saw the collapse of their scheme to bring more centralized control to individual congregations and to effect closer cooperation between Congregational and Presbyterian churches. Meanwhile in western Massachusetts age-old standards governing admission to membership in the Congregational Church were being eased by the powerful Northampton minister Solomon Stoddard. The Mathers directly challenged Stoddard but were unable to curb him. A series of revivals under Stoddard prepared the soil in the Connecticut valley for Stoddard's grandson, Jonathan Edwards, and for the coming of the Great Awakening.

Pioneer Scientist and Intellectual

Although the Mathers maintained standfast attitudes toward many cultural and ecclesiastical changes, they were in the intellectual vanguard of the Colonies. Cotton corresponded with men of learning around the world. In 1710 he was awarded a doctorate of divinity by the University of Glasgow. In 1713 he had the great honor of being elected to the Royal Society of London. He and Increase were among the first in the Colonies to advocate inoculation against smallpox and were threatened and maligned for so doing. Undismayed (even by a bomb thrown through the window of Cotton's house), the Mathers succeeded, with Dr. Zabdiel Boylston, in putting the project into effect.

Career as a Writer

Despite disfavor, Cotton's activities continued. He wrote in seven languages and also mastered the Iroquois Indian language. In his lifetime 382 of his works were published. These took many forms: history, sermons, biography, fables, books of practical piety, theological and scientific treatises, and verse. Often pedantic and heavily embellished with simile, metaphor, and learned reference, his writing could also achieve simplicity, straight-forwardness, and practicality. Mather saw instruction as the chief function of good writing and made sophisticated adaptations of style and mode to that end. He might instruct explicitly, as in the medical manual The Angel of Bethesda (1722), or by humorous indirection, as in his Political Fables (1692), written in the manner of 18th-century essayists.

In the Psalterium Americanum (1718) the versatile Mather turned his talents to translating the Psalms and adapting them to music. The unpublished Biblia Americana is an exhaustively annotated scholarly interpretation of the Bible. His Bonifacius, or Essays To Do Good (1718) makes practical prescriptions for personal piety. An immensely popular book, Benjamin Franklin called it the work that most influenced his youth. Suggestive of Franklin too is the popular science mode in such works as Mather's Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences (1684).

Probably Mather's greatest work was his Magnalia Christi Americana (1702). Primarily a history of New England, it is composed from many of Mather's other writings. The seven sections tell of the settlement of New England, the lives of its governors and ministers, and the story of Harvard College and of the Congregational Church and conclude with a treatment of "remarkable providences" and "various disturbances." The Magnalia provides a detailed and eloquent statement of the Puritan mind as it addressed itself to its historical mission in an hour of darkness, perhaps even of eclipse.

Strategies for keeping alive the reality of Christ's Judgment and of His future kingdom permeated all Mather's works. His biographies, one of Phips (1697) and another of Increase, Parentator (1724), were designed as exemplary lives of eminent men. The late work The Christian Philosopher (1721) attempts to wed the observations of the 18th-century naturalist with Christian faith in the order and purpose of the created world. Cotton was working with "modern" ideas, seeking to express them within the basic framework of Christian eschatology.

Cotton Mather outlived his father by only 5 years. Later American writers, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau, Harriet Beecher Stowe, James Russell Lowell, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow all acknowledged their debt to him.

Further Reading

A valuable introduction to Mather and representative selections from his work are in Kenneth B. Murdock, ed., Selections from Cotton Mather (1926). The best biography is Barrett Wendell, Cotton Mather: The Puritan Priest (1891; rev. ed. 1963). Ralph and Louise Boas, Cotton Mather: Keeper of the Puritan Conscience (1928), is more popular. The New England background may be found in Perry Miller, The New England Mind: From Colony to Province (1953). Robert Middlekauff, The Mathers: Three Generations of Puritan Intellectuals, 1596-1728 (1971), is a study in biography and intellectual history that seeks to revise the affirmative view of Puritan history taken by Miller. Recommended for its general analysis of the literature of the colonial period is Kenneth B. Murdock, Literature and Theology in Colonial New England (1949).

For more information on Cotton Mather, visit Britannica.com.

(Increase: 1639-1723; Cotton: 1663-1728), prominent Puritan ministers and leaders. Increase Mather, son of Richard Mather, first pastor of the Dorchester Church, assumed his father's position of prominence in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and became an effective ambassador for the colony's interests at the courts of James II and William III when its original charter was being renegotiated. At first opposed to the Half-Way Covenant, which loosened the requirements for baptism, he reversed his position and in 1675 published an influential book, The First Principles of New England, asserting the founders' latitude on the question of who was entitled to be baptized. Author of more than one hundred works--sermons, political tracts, chronicles of the Indian wars, ecclesiastical treatises--Increase played a moderating role during the Salem witchcraft crisis, reflecting on the events in his Cases of Conscience concerning Evil Spirits (1692). In later years he was involved in the founding of Yale College, which he hoped would become the bastion of orthodoxy that Harvard had ceased to be.

Cotton Mather, an even more prolific writer and controversialist than his father, published nearly five hundred works, of which the most important is the Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), a massive history of New England under the aspect of divine providence. Though born to the Puritan purple (he was a grandson of John Cotton on his mother's side), Mather was in some respects more an Enlightenment figure than an orthodox Calvinist. He played an important role in disseminating scientific knowledge to the New England community (he wrote a treatise on medicine, The Angel of Bethesda, that remained unpublished in his lifetime), and, with Increase, he was at the forefront of the battle for acceptance of the smallpox vaccine. He also shared the pulpit of Boston's Old North Church with his father. The two fought against ecclesiastical innovation as New England was forced into toleration and some of the basic practices of the founders' generation (such as restricted communion and public profession of faith) came under attack. He remains best known, however, for his support of the witchcraft persecution, which he explained in his Wonders of the Invisible World (1693), a book that can be read--more sympathetically now than then--as a poignant assertion of New England's continuing centrality as the battleground between God and Satan.

Bibliography:

Michael G. Hall, The Last American Puritan: The Life of Increase Mather, 1639-1723 (1988); Robert Middlekauff, The Mathers: Three Generations of Puritan Intellectuals, 1596-1728 (1971); Kenneth Silverman, The Life and Times of Cotton Mather (1984).

Author:

Andrew Delbanco

See also Half-Way Covenant; New England Colonies; Puritanism; Religion; Salem Witch Trials.

(măth'ər) , 1663–1728, American Puritan clergyman and writer, b. Boston, grad. Harvard (B.A., 1678; M.A., 1681); son of Increase Mather and grandson of Richard Mather and of John Cotton. He was ordained (1685) and became a colleague of his father at North Church, Boston, serving as pastor in his father's absences and after his father's death (1723). It was principally by his indefatigable writing that he became one of the most celebrated of all New England Puritan ministers. He was a scholar of parts, working industriously to gather a library and volubly setting forth what he learned. Thus his Magnalia Christi Americana (1702) is a miscellany of materials on the ecclesiastical history of New England, vaguely intended to show how the history of Massachusetts demonstrated the working of God's will. His theological writings, now largely forgotten, had great influence in his time. He was a power in the state as well as in the church, was a leader in the revolt against the rule of Sir Edmund Andros and an adviser in Sir William Phips's government. Today he is generally pictured unsympathetically as the archetype of the narrow, intolerant, severe Puritan, and his part in the Salem witch trials in 1692 is often recalled. Although he did not approve of all the trials, he had helped to stir up the wave of hysterical fear by his Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcraft and Possessions (1689). Later he further pursued his inquiries into satanic possession with Wonders of the Invisible World (1693, new ed. 1956), which was sharply answered by Robert Calef. Even Mather's benevolence—expressed in his actions and reflected in his writings, as in Essays to Do Good (1710)—had a core of smugness. Yet he helped to forward learning and education and to make New England a cultural center. He was disappointed in his hopes of being president of Harvard but was one of the moving spirits in the founding of Yale. He was deeply interested in science and was the first native-born American to be a fellow of the Royal Society. He persuaded Zabdiel Boylston to inoculate against smallpox and supported the unpopular inoculation even when his life was threatened.

Bibliography

See biographies by B. Wendell (1891, repr. 1963), R. P. Boas and L. Boas (1928, repr. 1964), and K. Silverman (1985); studies by R. Middlekauff (1971) and J. P. Wood (1971); bibliography by T. J. Holmes (3 vol., 1940).

(1663-1728)

1682	"Poem Dedicated to... Urian Oakes." Mather's first published work is a funeral elegy on the recently deceased clergyman and Harvard president, summarizing his virtues and the impact of his death on his family, friends, and the community. Mather, the son of Increase Mather, would produce a comparable poem, "Elegy on... Nathanael Collins," in 1685.
1686	"The Call of the Gospel." The first of Mather's published sermons is addressed to a condemned murderer who repented. The notoriety of the case helps establish Mather as one of the era's distinctive voices.
1689	Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions and The Declaration of the Gentlemen, Merchants, and Inhabitants of Boston. The first provides Mather's reflections on one of the accused in the Salem witchcraft trials, whom he took into his home for observation. The second is a manifesto against Governor Edmund Andros (1637-1714), which helps incite the uprising that contributes to the governor's dismissal.
1691	"Little Flocks Guarded Against Grievous Wolves: An Address Unto those Parts of New-England which are most Exposed unto Assaults, from the Modern Teachers of the misled Quakers." Mather warns his readers to be prepared to confront the Quakers with scripture.
1692	Political Fables. Three allegorical tales supporting the new charter for the New England colonies and the new governor, Sir William Phips, is circulated in manuscript and would be first published in 1868.
1693	The Wonders of the Visible World. Mather provides a narrative account of some of the Salem witchcraft trials along with his comments on demonic possession. It would prompt a satirical reply by Robert Calef (1648-1719), More Wonders of the Invisible World (1700), condemning the trials and Mather's part in them, which would provoke a response from Mather, Some Remarks Upon a Scandalous Book (1701).
1699	Decennium luctuosum. Mather chronicles Indian affairs from 1688 to 1698, which he presents as mainly a conflict between good and evil, with the Indians depicted as descendants of Satan and the enemies of God.
1701	Some Few Remarks Upon A Scandalous Book, against the Government and Ministry of New-England... by One Robert Calef. Mather responds to Calef's charge in More Wonders of the Invisible World (1700) that Mather was responsible for the witchcraft trials in Salem.
1702	Magnalia Christi Americana. Mather's most ambitious work, this history of the New England church aspires to the comprehensiveness of a Puritan epic, explaining theological points and justifying church actions. It incorporates many of Mather's previous religious writings and includes biographical portraits of governors and clergy, as well as a history of Harvard College and an account of several of its graduates.
1703	Meat Out of the Eater or, Funeral Discourses Occasioned By the Death of Several Relatives. This is a series of five sermons preached on the death of Mather's wife and his children. The title refers to the biblical Samson's riddle: "Out of the eater came forth meat, And out the strong came forth sweetness."
1706	The Negro Christianized. Although Mather kept slaves and believed that Christian law allowed slavery, he argues here for the humane treatment of slaves, stating that they are "Men, and not Beasts, that you have bought." He also argues against the notion that slaves should not be converted because it is unlawful for Christians to own other Christians.
1707	A Memorial of the Present Deplorable State of New-England. Published anonymously, Mather's pamphlet lists charges against Governor Dudley and calls for his dismissal. Mather would continue his attack in 1708 in The Deplorable State of New-England.
1707	Manly Christianity: A Brief Essay on the Signs of Growth and Strength in the most Lovely Christianity. Issued anonymously, the work was later published under Mather's name. It was intended to impart "Things which are of great Importance to be inculcated on our Christians."
1708	The Way of Truth, Laid out.... Mather's catechism for children is written in a style that is "rendered now a little more easy and proper for children of the smallest capacity."
1710	Man Eating the Food of Angels: The Gospel of the Manna to be Gathered in the Morning. The work demonstrates Mather's use of anecdotes to identify ideals and examples for young children to imitate.
1710	Bonifacius. This handbook on moral behavior, commonly known as Essays To Do Good, is one of Mather's most popular works. Benjamin Franklin would claim it directed his conduct through life and helped make him a useful citizen of the world; he would imitate the work in his Dogood Papers.
1712	Curiosa Americana. Mather collects his scientific letters to the Royal Society reporting on "all New and Rare Occurences of Nature, in these parts of the World."
1718	Psalterium Americanum: The Book of Psalms in a Translation Exactly Conformed unto the Original, but All in Blank Verse. Mather's major poetic contribution is this blank-verse translation with his analysis of poetry that demonstrates a considerable understanding of contemporary poetics.
1721	The Christian Philosopher. Mather's most important scientific work surveys the fields of astronomy, physics, meteorology, geology, geography, and biology, attempting to reconcile scriptural and natural truths. He claims that all that is wondrous and beautiful is created by God and that science is able to locate the deeper meaning in these things.
1722	The Angel of Bethesda, Visiting the Invalids of a Miserable World. Demonstrating Mather's sustained interest in science, this work discusses common illnesses and possible cures and is regarded as the first significant treatise on colonial medicine. Mather also publishes An Account... of the Inoculating the Small-Pox, defending the practice.
1724	Diary of Cotton Mather, 1681-1724. Although he would remain an active writer until his death, Mather ceases to keep a thorough diary after 1724. The complete diary, not published until 1911, is perhaps Mather's most important literary contribution, detailing crucial historical events colored with his introspection and personal insights.
1724	Parentator. Mather supplies the first biography of his famed Puritan father, Increase Mather.
1726	Manuductio ad ministerium. Mather writes a handbook addressed to his son, concerning the proper education for a minister. It includes Mather's insights on reading and writing and his definition of the proper writing style: "Vigour sensible in every Sentence."
1727	Agricola, or The Religious Husbandman. Mather uses aspects of nature to reveal spiritual truths. This important work employs Mather's characteristic method of "reading" the world allegorically.

(Increase (1639-1723); Cotton(1662-1728))

Father and son, two eminent divines of Boston, Massachusetts. The Mathers were among the first to respond to the wave of skepticism that assaulted Christianity at the end of the seventeenth century and emerged in the next century as Deism. Deism denied the possibility of human contact with what had traditionally been thought of as the supernatural. Both of the Mathers wrote books offering evidence of contact with the spiritual world as an apologetic for Christian faith.

Part of their understanding of the supernatural was supernatural evil. Witchcraft, which they equated with Satanism, was one major form taken by supernatural evil, and they saw evidence of witchcraft both among the Native Americans and members of the Boston urban community. This caused them to be seen as believers in the existence of widespread witchcraft throughout New England. Though counseling some degree of caution, especially in responding to the unsupported accounts of people claiming to be afflicted by a witch, they were early supporters of the inquiries at Salem Village (now Danvers), Massachusetts, in 1692. In fact, Increase Mather had chosen the governor, Sir William Phips, who was partly responsible for the Salem Witchcraft trials. However, as the trials proceeded, Cotton Mather especially became one of the strong forces arguing against the litigation. His personal visit with the governor was of great effect in this endeavor.

In the years immediately after the trials, as the people of Massachusetts came to see the error of what had occurred, the Mathers were accused by some of the more skeptical voices in the community, such as Robert Calef, as the real cause of the colony's disgrace. Only in the twentieth century, with the massive reevaluation of the whole of the witchcraft phenomenon in New England, has the Mathers' reputation been somewhat put into a more balanced perspective.

Sources:

Calef, Robert. More Wonders of the Invisible World; or, The Wonders of the Invisible World Display'd in Five Parts. London, 1700.

Mather, Cotton. Memorable Provinces, Relating to Witchcraft and Possessions. Boston, 1689.

——. The Wonders of the Invisible World. Observations as Well Historical as Theological, upon the Nature, the Number, and the Operations of the Devil. Boston: Benjamin Harris, 1693.

Mather, Increase. Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Provinces. Boston, 1684.

(mathh-uhr)

A scholar and religious leader of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Mather, a prominent Massachusetts Puritan, urged the suppression of witchcraft and supported the Salem witch trials.

Quotes:

"Our opportunities to do good are our talents."

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)