The Beginnings of New England; or, the Puritan Theocracy in its relations to civil and religious liberty. (Bibliographical Note.)

Front matter

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HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., Boston. AMERICAN POLITICAL IDEAS, viewed from the Stand-point of Universal History. Third Edition. i2mo, Ji.oo. Harper & Brothers, New York. THE BEGINNINGS OF NEW ENGLAND OR THE PURITAN THEOCRACY IN ITS RELATIONS TO CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY nv JOHN FISKE *' The Lord Christ intends to achieve greater matters by this little handful than the world is aware of." — Edward Johnson, Wonder- Working Providence of Zion's Saviour in New England. 1654. BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY (ariK CfttoenfitK Vntf, ŒambriDge Copyright, 1889, By JOHN FISKE. All rights reserved. The Riverside Press, Cambriilgt : Electrotyped and Printed by II. O. Iloughton & Co. To MT DEAR CLASSMATES, BENJAMIN THOMPSON FROTHINGHAM, WILLIAM AUGUSTUS WHITE, AND FREDERIC CROMWELL, 31 Detticate rtjwS JSooh.

Preface

. This book contains the substance of the lectures originally given at the Washington University, St. Louis, in May, 1887, in the course of my annual visit to that institution as University Professor of American History. The lectures were repeated in the following month of June at Portland, Oregon, and since then either the whole course, or one or more of the lectures, have been given in Boston, Newton, Milton, Chelsea, New Bedford, Lowell, Worcester, Springfield, and Pittsfielcl, Mass. ; Farmington, Middletown, and Stamford, Conn. ; New York, Brooklyn, and Tarrytown, N. Y. ; Phil adelphia and Ogontz, Pa. ; Wilmington, Del. ; Chicago, 111. ; San Francisco and Oakland, Cal. In this sketch of the circumstances which at tended the settlement of New England, I have pur posely omitted many details which in a formal history of that period would need to be included. It has been my aim to give the outline of such a narrative as to indicate the principles at work in the history of New England down to the Revolu- VI

PREFACE.

. tion of 1689. When I was writing the lectures I had just been reading, with much interest, the work of my former pupil, Mr. Brooks Adams, en titled " The Emancipation of Massachusetts." With the specific conclusions set forth in that book I found myself often agreeing, but it seemed to me that the general aspect of the case would be con siderably modified and perhaps somewhat more adequately presented by enlarging the field of view. In forming historical judgments a great deal de pends upon our perspective. Out of the very im perfect human nature which is so slowly and painfully casting off the original sin of its inheritance from primeval savagery, it is scarcely possible in any age to get a result which will look quite satis factory to the men of a riper and more enlightened age. Fortunately we can learn something from the stumblings of our forefathers, and a good many things seem quite clear to us to-day which two centuries ago were only beginning to be dimly dis cerned by a few of the keenest and boldest spirits.

The faults of the Puritan theocracy, which found its most complete development in Massachusetts, are so glaring that it is idle to seek to palliate them or to explain them away. But if we would really understand what was going on in the Puritan world of the seventeenth century, and how a better state of things has grown out of it, we must endeavour to distinguish and define the elements of wholesome

PREFACE.

. VII strength in that theocracy no less than its elements of crudity and weakness. The first chapter, on " The Roman Idea and the English Idea," contains a somewhat more developed statement of the points briefly indicated in the thirteenth section (pp. 85—95) of " The Des tiny of Man." As all of the present book, except the first chapter, was written here under the shadow of the Washington University, I take pleasure in dating it from this charming and hospitable city where I have passed some of the most delightful hours of my life. St. Lons, April 15, 1S89. CONTENTS.

Chapter I. The Roman Idea And The English Idea

Page When did the Roman Empire come to an end ? . . . 1-3 Meaning of Odovakar's work ...... 3 The Holy Roman Empire . . . . . . . 4, 5 Gradual shifting of primacy from the men who spoke Latin, and their descendants, to the men vho speak English . 6-8 Political history is the history of nation-making . . . 8, 9 The Oriental method of nation-making ; conquest without incorporation 9 Illustrations from eastern despotisms 10 And from the Moors in Spain 11 The Roman method of nation-making ; conquest with incorporation, but without representation . * . . .12 Its slow development ........ 13 Vices in the Roman system 14 Its fundamental defect ........ 15 It knew nothing of political power delegated by the people to representatives ........ 16 And therefore the expansion of its dominion ended in a centralized despotism 16 Which entailed the danger that human life might come to stagnate in Europe, as it had done in Asia . . . .17 The danger was warded off by the Germanic invasions, which, however, threatened to undo the work which the Empire had done in organizing European society . . . .17 But such disintegration was prevented by the sway which the Roman Church had come to exercise over the European mind ........... 18 The wonderful thirteenth century 19 The English method of nation-making ; incorporation with representation .20 CONTENTS.

X Pacific tendencies of federalism 21 Failure of Greek attempts at federation . ■ . .22 Fallacy of the notion that republics must be small . . 23 " It is not the business of a government to support its people, but of the people to support their government " .24 Teutonic March-meetings and representative assemblies . 25 Peculiarity of the Teutonic conquest of Britain . . 26, 27 Survival and development of the Teutonic representative assembly in England 28 Primitive Teutonic institutions less modified in England than in Germany .. ........29 Some effects of the Norman conquest of England . . 30 The Barons' War and the first House of Commons . . 31 Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty . . • .32 Conflict between Roman Idea and English Idea begins to become clearly visible in the thirteenth century . . .33 Decline of mediæval Empire and Church with the growth of modern nationalities ........ 34 Overthrow of feudalism, and increasing power of the crown 35 Formidable strength of the Roman Idea . . . .36 Had it not been for the Puritans, political liberty would probably have disappeared from the world . . .37 Beginnings of Protestantism in the thirteenth century . . 38 The Cathari, or Puritans of the Eastern Empire . . .39 The Albigenses ......... 40 Effects of persecution; its feebleness in England . . . 41 Wyclif and the Lollards ....... 42 Political character of Henry VIII. 's revolt against Rome . 43 The yeoman Hugh Latimer ....... 44 The moment of Cromwell's triumph was the most critical moment in history ........ 45 Contrast with France ; fate of the Huguenots . . 46, 47 Victory of the English Idea ....... 48 Significance of the Puritan Exodus . .... 49

Chapter II. The Pcritan Exodtts

Influence of Puritanism upon modern Europe . . 50, 51 Work of the Lollards ........ 52 They made the Bible the first truly popular literature in England 53, 54 The English version of the Bible 54 CONTENTS.

XI Secret of Henry VIII. 's swift success in his revolt against Rome 56 Effects of the persecution under Mary 57 Calvin's theology in its political bearings . . . 58, 59 Elizabeth's policy and its effects 60, 61 Puritan sea-rovers . 61 Geographical distribution of Puritanism in England ; it was strongest in the eastern counties . . . . .62 Preponderance of East Anglia in the Puritan exodus . . 63 Familiar features of East Anglia to the visitor from New England 64 Puritanism was not intentionally allied with liberalism . 65 Robert Brown and the Separatists 60 Persecution of the Separatists 67 Recantation of Brown ; it was reserved for William Brewster to take the lead in the Puritan exodus ... .68 James Stuart, and his encounter with Andrew Melville . 69 What James intended to do when he became King of England 70 His view of the political situation, as declared in the conference at Hampton Court 71 The congregation of Separatists at Serooby . . . .72 The flight to Holland, and settlement at Leyden in 1609 . 73 Systematic legal toleration in Holland . . . .74 Why the Pilgrims did not stay there ; they wished to keep up their distinct organization and found a state . . 74 And to do this they must cross the ocean, because European territory was all preoccupied ...... 75 The London and Plymouth companies 75 First explorations of the New England coast ; Bartholomew Gosnold (1602), and George Weymouth (1605) ... 76 The Popham colony (1607) 77 Captain John Smith gives to New England its name (1614) . 78 The Pilgrims at Leyden decide to make a settlement near the Delaware river ........ 79 How King James regarded the enterprise . . . .80 Voyage of the Mayflower ; she goes astray and takes the Pilgrims to Cape Cod bay . . ...... 81 Founding of the Plymouth colony (1620) . . . 82,83 Why the Indians did not molest the settlers . . 84, 85 The chief interest of this beginning of the Puritan exodus lies not so much in what it achieved as in what it suggested 86, CONTENTS.

XII

Chapter III. The Planting Of New England

Sir Ferdinando Gorges and the Council for New England 88, 89 Wessagusset and Merrymount ..... 90, 91 The Dorchester adventurers ....... 92 John White wishes to " raise a bulwark against the Kingdom of Antichrist ......... 93 And John Endicott undertakes the work of building it . .94 Conflicting grants sow seeds of trouble ; the Gorges and Mason claims ......... 94, 9o Endicott's arrival in New England, and the founding of Salem 95 The Company of Massachusetts Bay ; Francis Higginson takes a powerful reinforcement to Salem . . . .96 The development of John White's enterprise into the Company of Massachusetts Bay coincided with the first four years of the reign of Charles I. . . . . . .97 Extraordinary scene in the House of Commons (June 5, 1628) 98, 99 The King turns Parliament out of doors (March 2, 1629) . 100 Desperate nature of the crisis ..... 100, 101 The meeting at Cambridge (Aug. 26, 1629), and decision to transfer the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company, and the government established under it, to New England . 102 Leaders of the great migration ; John Winthrop . . . 102 And Thomas Dudley 103 Founding of Massachusetts ; the schemes of Gorges overwhelmed .......... 104 Beginnings of American constitutional history ; the question as to self-government raised at Watertown . . . 105 Representative system established 106 Bicameral assembly ; story of the stray pig .... 107 Ecclesiastical polity ; the triumph of Separatism . . . 108 Restriction of the suffrage to members of the Puritan congregational churches ...... . 109 Founding of Harvard College HO Threefold danger to the New England settlers in 1636 : — 1.

From the King, who prepares to attack the charter, but is foiled by dissensions at home .... 111-113 2. From religious dissensions ; Roger Williams . 114-116 Henry Vane and Anne Hutchinson .... 116-119 Beginnings of New Hampshire and Rhode Island . 119-120 CONTENTS. XIII 3. From the Indians ; the Pequot supremacy . . .121 First movements into the Connecticut valley, and disputes with the Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam . . 122, 123 Restriction of the suffrage leads to disaffection in Massachusetts ; profoundly interesting opinions of Winthrop and Hooker 123, 124 Connecticut pioneers and their hardships .... 125 Thomas Hooker, and the founding of Connecticut . . 126 The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (Jan 14, 1639) ; the first written constitution that created a government . 127 Relations of Connecticut to the genesis of the Federal Union 128 Origin of the Pequot War ; Sassaeus tries to unite the Indian tribes in a crusade against the English . . . 129, 1.30 The schemes of Sassaeus are foiled by Roger Williams . 130 The Pequots take the war path alone 131 And are exterminated ....... 132-134 John Davenport, and the founding of New Haven . . 135 New Haven legislation, and legend of the ' ' Blue Laws " .136 With the meeting of the Long Parliament, in 1640, the Puritan exodus comes to its end ..... 137 What might have been 138, 391

Chapter IV. The New England Confederacy

The Puritan exodus was purely and exclusively English . 140 And the settlers were all thrifty and prosperous ; chiefly country squires and yeomanry of the best and sturdiest type 141, 142 In all history there has been no other instance of colonization so exclusively effected by picked and chosen men . . 143 What, then, was the principle of selection ? The migration was not intended to promote what we call religious liberty 144, 145 Theocratic ideal of the Puritans ...... 146 The impulse which sought to realize itself in the Puritan ideal was an ethical impulse ...... 147 In interpreting Scripture, the Puritan appealed to his reason ......... 148, 149 Value of such perpetual theological discussion as was carried on in early New England 150, CONTENTS.

Comparison with the history of Scotland .... 152 Bearing of these considerations upon the history of the New England confederacy The existence of so many colonies (Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Haven, Rhode Island, the Piscataqua towns, etc.) was due to differences of opinion on questions in which men's religious ideas were involved . 154 And this multiplication of colonies led to a notable and significant attempt at confederation 155 Turbulence of dissent in Rhode Island . . . -156 The Earl of Warwick, and his Board of Commissioners . 157 Constitution of the Confederacy 158 It was only a league, not a federal union .... 159 Its formation involved a tacit assumption of sovereignty . 160 The fall of Charles I. brought up, for a moment, the question as to the supremacy of Parliament over the colonies . 161 Some interesting questions ....•■• 102 Genesis of the persecuting spirit ...••• -^u Samuel Gorton and his opinions 163-165 He flees to Aquedneck and is banished thence . . . 166 Providence protests against him ... ... 167 He flees to Shawomet, where he buys land of the Indians . 168 Miantonomo and Uncas ....... 169, 170 Death of Miantonomo ........ 171 Edward Johnson leads an expedition against Shawomet . 172 Trial and sentence of the heretics ....•• 173 Winthrop declares himself in a prophetic opinion . . . 174 The Presbyterian cabal 175-177 The Cambridge Platform ; deaths of Winthrop and Cotton . 177 Views of Winthrop and Cotton as to toleration in matters of religion .......... 178 After their death, the leadership in Massachusetts was in the hands of Endicott and Norton ...... 179 The Quakers ; their opinions and behavior . . . 179-181 Violent manifestations of dissent ...... 182 Anne Austin and Mary Fisher ; how they were received in Boston 183 The confederated colonies seek to expel the Quakers ; noble attitude of Rhode Island ....... 184 Roger Williams appeals to his friend, Oliver Cromwell . 185 The "heavenly speech" of Sir Harry Vane .... 185 Laws passed against the Quakers ...... 186 How the death penalty was regarded at that time in New England CONTENTS.

XV Executions of Quakers on Boston Common . . . 188, 189 Wenlock Christison's defiance and victory . . . 189, 190 The "King's Missive" 191 Why Charles II. interfered to protect the Quakers . . 191 His hostile feeling toward the New England governments . 192 The regicide judges, Goffe and Whalley . . . 193, 194 New Haven annexed to Connecticut .... 194, 195 Abraham Pierson, and the founding of Newark . . . 196 Breaking-down of the theocratic policy .... 197 Weakening of the Confederacy 198

Chapter V

king Philip's wak. Relations between the Puritan settlers and the Indians . . 199 Trade with the Indians 200 Missionary work ; Thomas Mayhew 201 John Eliot and his translation of the Bible .... 202 His preaching to the Indians ....... 203 His villages of Christian Indians ...... 204 The Puritan's intention was to deal gently and honourably with the red men 205 Why Pennsylvania was so long unmolested by the Indians, 205, 206 Difficulty of the situation in New England .... 207 It is hard for the savage and the civilized man to understand one another 208 How Eliot's designs must inevitably have been misinterpreted by the Indians ........ 209 It is remarkable that peace should have been so long preserved 210 Deaths of Massasoit and his son Alexander . . . .211 Very little is known about the nature of Philip's designs . 212 The meeting at Taunton 213 Sausamon informs against Philip 213 And is murdered 214 Massacres at Swanzey and Dartmouth 214 Murder of Captain Hutchinson 215 Attack on Brookfield, which is relieved by Simon Willard . 216 Fighting in the Connecticut valley ; the mysterious stranger at Hadley 217, 218 Ambuscade at Bloody Brook 219 Popular excitement in Boston CONTENTS.

The Narragansetts prepare to take the war-path . . . 221 And Governor Winslow leads an army against them . 222, 223 Storming of the great swamp fortress ..... 224 Slaughter of the Indians 225 Effect of the blow 226 Growth of the humane sentiment in recent times, due to the fact that the horrors of war are seldom brought home to everybody's door ....... 227, 2-8 Warfare with savages is likely to be truculent in character . 229 Attack upon Lancaster ........ 230 Mrs. Rowlandson's narrative ...... 231-233 Virtual extermination of the Indians (February to August, 1676) 233, 234 Death of Canonchet ........ 234 Philip pursued by Captain Church 235 Death of Philip 236 Indians sold into slavery ....... 237 Conduct of the Christian Indians 238 War with the Tarratines 239 Frightful destruction of life and property .... 240 Henceforth the red man figures no more in the history of New England, except in frontier raids under French guidance ........... 241

Chapter VI. The Tyranny Of Andros

Romantic features in the early history of New England . 242 Captain Edward Johnson, of Woburn, and his book on " The Wonder-working Providsnce of Zion's Saviour in New England" 243,244 Acts of the Puritans often judged by an unreal and impossible standard ......... 245 Spirit of the " Wonder-working Providence " . . .246 Merits and faults of the Puritan theocracy .... 247 Restriction of the suffrage to church members . . . 248 It was a source of political discontent 249 Inquisitorial administration of justice 250 The " Halfway Covenant " 251 Founding of the Old South church 252 Unfriendly relations between Charles II. and Massachusetts 253 Complaints against Massachusetts CONTENTS.

XVII The Lords of Trade 255 Arrival of Edward Randolph in Boston .... 256 Joseph Dudley and the beginnings of Toryism in New England 257, 258 Charles II. erects the four Piscataqua towns into the royal province of New Hampshire ...... 259 And quarrels with Massachusetts over the settlement of the Gorges claim to the Maine district 260 Simon Bradstreet and his verse-making wife .... 261 Massachusetts answers the king's peremptory message . . 262 Secret treaty between Charles II. and Louis XIV. . . 263 Shameful proceedings in England 264 Massachusetts refuses to surrender her charter ; and accordingly it is annulled by decree of chancery, June 21, 1684 . 265 Effect of annulling the charter ...... 266 Death of Charles II., accession of James II., and appointment of Sir Edmund Andros as viceroy over New England, with despotic powers ........ 267 The charter oak 268 Episcopal services in Boston ...... 268, 269 Founding of the King's Chapel 269 The tyranny 270 John Wise of Ipswich 271 Fall of James II 271 Insurrection in Boston, and overthrow of Andros . . . 272 Effects of the Revolution of 1689 273 Need for union among all the northern colonies . . . 274 Plymouth, Maine, and Acadia annexed to Massachusetts . 275 Which becomes a royal province ...... 276 And is thus brought into political sympathy with Virginia . 276 The seeds of the American Revolution were already sown, and the spirit of 1776 was foreshadowed in 1689 . 277,

Chapter I. The Roman Idea And The English Idea

It used to be the fashion of historians, looking superficially at the facts presented in chronicles and tables of dates, without analyzing and comparing vast groups of facts distributed through centuries, or even suspecting the need for such analysis and comparison, to assign the date 476 a. d. as the moment at which the Roman Empire came to an end. It was in that year that the soldier of fortune, Odovakar, commander of the Herulian mercenaries in Italy, sent the handsome boy Romulus, son of Orestes, better known as " little Augustus," from his imperial throne to the splendid villa of Lucullus near Naples, and gave him a yearly pension of $35,000 [6,000 solidi] to console him for the loss of a world. As 324 years elapsed before another emperor was crowned at Rome, when did the and as the political headship of Europe Pire come to after that happy restoration remained upon the German soil to which the events of the eighth century had shifted it, nothing could seem more natural than the habit which historians once had, of saying that the mighty career of Rome had ended, as it had begun, with a Romulus.

Some times the date 476 was even set up as a great land mark dividing modern from ancient history. For those, however, who took such a view, it was impossible to see the events of the Middle Ages in their true relations to what went before and what came after. It was impossible to understand what went on in Italy in the sixth century, or to explain the position of that great Roman power which had its centre on the Bosphorus, which in the code of Jus tinian left us our grandest monument of Roman law, and which for a thousand years was the staunch bulwark of Europe against the successive aggressions of Persian, Saracen, and Turk. It was equally impossible to understand the rise of the Papal power, the all-important politics of the great Saxon and Swabian emperors, the relations of me diæval England to the Continental powers, or the marvellously interesting growth of the modern Eu ropean system of nationalities.

Since the middle of the nineteenth century the study of history has undergone changes no less sweeping than those which have in the same time affected the study of the physical sciences. Vast groups of facts distributed through various ages and countries have been subjected to comparison and analysis, with the result that they have not only thrown fresh light upon one another, but have in many cases enabled us to recover historic points of view that had long been buried in oblivion. Such an instance was furnished about twenty-five years ago by Dr. Bryce's epoch-making work on the Holy Roman Empire. Since then historians still recognize the importance of the date „ . L Meaning of 476 as that which left the Bishop of odovakar'a L work. Rome the dominant personage in Italy, and marked the shifting of the political centre of gravity from the Palatine to the Lateran.

This was one of those subtle changes which escape notice until after some of their effects have attracted atten tion. The most important effect, in this instance, realized after three centuries, was not the overthrow of Roman power in the West, but its indefinite ex tension and expansion. The men of 476 not only had no idea that they were entering upon a new era, but least of all did they dream that the Roman Em pire had come to an end, or was ever likely to. Its cities might be pillaged, its provinces overrun, but the supreme imperial power itself was something without which the men of those days could not im agine the world as existing. It must have its di vinely ordained representative in one place if not in another. If the throne in Italy was vacant, it was no more than had happened before ; there was still a throne at Constantinople, and to its occupant Zeno the Roman Senate sent a message, saying that one emperor was enough for both ends of the earth, and begging him to confer upon the gallant Odovakar the title of patrician, and entrust the af fairs of Italy to his care.

So when Sicambrian Chlodwig set up his Merovingian kingdom in northern Gaul, he was glad to array himself in the robe of a Roman consul, and obtain from the eastern emperor a formal ratification of his rule. Countless examples show that the event of 476 was understood as the virtual reunion of West and East under a single head ; whereas, on the other hand, the impressive scene in the basilica of St. Peter's on the Christmas of 800, when Pope Leo III. placed the diadem of the Cæsars upon the Frankish brow of Charles the Great, was regarded, not as the restoration of an empire once extinguished, but as a new separation between East and West, a re-transfer of the world's political centre from the Bosphorus to the Tiber. When after two The Holy Eocenturies more the sceptre had passed man Empire. frQm the Hne of Frankisu Charles to the line of Saxon Otto, this Holy Roman Empire, shaped by the alliance of German king with Italian pontiff, acquired such consistency as to outlast the whole group of political conditions in which it originated.

These conditions endured for five centuries after the coronation in 800 ; the empire preserved a continuous existence for yet five centuries more. Until after the downfall of the great Hohenstauffen emperors, late in the thirteenth century, soon followed by the Babylonish exile of the popes at Avignon, the men of western Europe felt themselves in a certain sense members of a political whole of which Rome was the centre. By the beginning of the sixteenth century this feeling had almost disappeared. Men's world had enlarged till Rome no longer seemed so great to them as it had seemed to their forefathers who had lived under its mighty spell, or as it seems to us who view it through the lenses of history. Within its own imperial domains powerful nations had slowly grown up, whose speech would have sounded strange to Cicero ; while beyond ocean were found new lands where the name of Cæsar had never been heard.

By the side of Louis XII. or Ferdinand of Aragon, it was not easy to recognize a grander dignity in the Hapsburg successor of Augustus ; and the mutterings of revolt against papal su premacy already heralded the storm which was soon to rend all Christendom in twain. After the Reformation, the conception of a universal Chris tian monarchy, as held whether by St. Augustine or by Dante, had ceased to have a meaning and faded from men's memories. Yet in its forms and titles the Holy Roman Empire continued to sur vive, until, as Voltaire said, it had come to be neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. So long did it remain upon the scene that in 1790 an illus trious American philosopher, Benjamin Thompson, a native of Woburn in Massachusetts and some time dweller in Rumford, New Hampshire, was admitted to a share in its dignities as Count Rum ford.

When at length in 1806, among the sweeping changes wrought by the battle of Austerlitz, the Emperor Francis II. resigned his position as head of the Germanic body, there were perhaps few who could have told why that head should have been called emperor rather than king ; fewer still, no doubt, who realized that the long succes sion of Cæsars had now first come to an end. I cite this final date of 1806 as interesting, but not as important, in connection with a political system which had already quite ceased to exist, save in so far as one might say that the spirit of it still survives in political methods and habits of thought that will yet be long in dying out. With great political systems, as with typical forms of or ganic life, the processes of development and of ex tinction are exceedingly slow, and it is seldom that the stages can be sharply marked by dates.

The Gradual shiftprocesses which have gradually shifted S?mthemeny the seat of empire until the prominent who spoke . -, . . . -, Latin, and part played nineteen centuries ago by their descend- -r, tat i • -±. - 1 ants, to the Rome and Alexandria, on opposite sides speak English, of the Mediterranean, has been at length assumed by London and New York, on opposite sides of the Atlantic, form a most interesting sub ject of study. But to understand them, one must do much more than merely catalogue the facts of political history ; one must acquire a knowledge of the drifts and tendencies of human thought and feeling and action from the earliest ages to the times in which we live. In covering so wide a field we cannot of course expect to obtain anything like complete results. In order to make a statement simple enough to be generally intelligible, it is necessary to pass over many circumstances and many considerations that might in one way and another qualify what we have to say.