Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1874-12-30
PILGRIM AND PURITAN.

ALEXANDRIA, November 9.
PILGRIM AND PURITAN.
The Providence Journal draws distinct
line between the forefathers of New England,
saying;
Ia reality, however, the Pilgrims who settled
at Plymouth were very different people IRON
the Puritans who, eight or ten years later, came
to Salem aud Boston, and subsequently spread
themselves over what they called New Eoglaud.
So different were they that the TWO would not
have crossed the ocean in the same ships or
dwelt together 10 the same settlements. The
Pilgrims we're by far the meeker and more self
denying people. They had much less lofty
notions Of their N ission 10 the new world. They
had separated themselves from the Eoglish
Church for conscience sake, and had ceased TO
be members of it. They were not grasping or
bad gone to Holland, because in that age they
could not live 10 England without being perse-
cuted as separatists. They came to America
in order that they might be in English territory
and within the general protection of English
power, aud that they might maintain their own
worship aud institutions without being mixed
with foreigners, as they had been in Holland.
They had no thought of using the civil sword
in religious matters
The Puritans, on the contrary, when they
left England, were still members Of the Angh-
can Church, through they had long desired
and struggled to promote a more complete re-
formation of its worship and institutions. They
disliked prelacy because they had suffered from
it; they disliked ceremonial worship because a
portion of it had come from the Church of
Rome, and through that church. from the
Pagan mythology of earlier ages. But
before leaving England they had by no
meass become either Congregationalists or
Presbyteriaus They were simply a party
in the Established Church that bad been
prosecuted to the limit of endurance by the &C.
clesastica and civil tyranny of their opponents.
They still retained ADgelicau notions both OF
the Church ard State, and of the relations be-
tween them. They had not advanced step
beyond the ADgelican idea of religious free
dom, and did not believe in the essential lib
erty of the human SOUL They had not deter
mined beforehand precisely what religious IN
sttutious they should establish in their colony,
and it is evident that in some important par
ticulars they founded their ecclesiastical ideas
from the Pilgrims who preceded them, and
who were far simpler and more charitable lD
their sentiments and beliefs. Neither Of them
thought that the church and the State could
exist separate from each other, but the Pill
prims we're much nearer this idea than their
more arrogant neighbors and rivals who settled
on the shores of Massachusetts, Bay, and be-
came the masters OF New England.
1t should not be forgotten, however, that
the Mayhower and Plymouth Rock and the
22d Of December belong exclusively to the Pill
qrims, The name of Puritan. unless it be in
very qualified sense, is not to be used IN con-
nection with these Forefathers' Day, as we
call it, had nothing to do with Boston and Sa-
lem and Cape Anne, but only with the bleak
shore that stretches from Roxbury to Cape
Cod. That alone is the country of the Pill
prims. That was the home of Bradford and
Carver and Brewster and Miles Standisb, tie
first forefathers of New England. To use the
day of their landiog for eulogizing Governor
Endicott and Governor Winthrop or the Puri-
taus of Massachusetts Bay, is just as much
perversion as it would be to devote it to the
first planters of Rhode Island or of Connec,
tlcut.
In Saintiue's "Myths of the Rhine, one of
the Christ mas books of the present year, there
is description of marriage in the Druidical
days. The author beholds it thus:
At a place where two roads meet the crack
ing of whip is heard: hogs, sheep, and small
oxen are driven aside to make way for kind
of procession, consisting of grave and solemn
men and women.
IL IS u WeuuluS.
Two young people have just had their union
blessed by the priests under the sacred oak.
The bride is dressed in black and wears
wreath OF dark leaves on her head. She walks
in the midst of her friends. A matron, who
walks on her left, holds before her eyes white
cloth; it is shroud, the sbroud in which she
will be buried one of these days. On her right
Druid intones chant 10 which he enumer-
ates in solemn rhythm all the troubles and all
the anxieties which await her in welded life.
From this day, young wife, thou alone wilt
have to bear all the burden of your united
household
You will have to attend the baking oven, to
provide fuel, and to 60 in search OF food; you
will have to prepare the resinous torch and the
lamp.
You will wash the linen at the fountain, and
you will make up the clothing.
You will attend to the cow aud even to the
horse, if your husband requires it.
Always full Of respect, you will wait on him,
standing behind him at his meals
Ii he expresses wish to take you with him
to war, you will accompany him to carry bis
baggage, to keep his arms in good condition,
and to nurse him if he should be sick or
wounded.
Happiness consists in the ful6llment of duty
BE happy, my child.
What is still more strange is that this dolor-
GUS wedding song, but slightly altered, is still
10 some parts of France at this day addressed
to brides by local minstres.