The Portland daily press., 1885-03-23
Gnr,,,n,on Rannle

The following is brief abstract of the lee.
ture delivered last evening before the young
people at Preble Chapel by H. M. Sylvester,
Esq:
| Perhaps no people were ever more marked in
| character in common sort OF way than the
early settlers of New England It could hard
| " be otherwise. OF ordinary stock keenlv
| alive to religious persecution at home, whose
creed was as simple and humble in its origin
| as they themselves, as brave IS they were reso-
| late, that they should turn their faces from the
| old heafthstones and seek new land is not so
wonderful after all. Men will do much for
conscience sake. and so we find a frai vessel
Casting anchor beside the bleakest spot upon
| our rugged and broken coast amid the driving
| snoWE of a December day of nearly three CEN
turies ago; and from her narrow decks came
| up little group of men and women who are
| 10 found new republic. Without shelter or
| 1000, except sucd as lay in the hold of the
| Mayhower, environed by a wilderness of tree
| and rock. they were, by the force of their sur
roundings, gradually transformed into the
material that gave US ultimately great coun-
try. Constantly facing great dangers from
savage, cold and starvation, they grew up an
intensely practical and unimaginative people.
Puritans in fact as they were in name, and as
honest and sincere as they were industrious
and frugal.
By their act of isolation from their early
English associations they had set themselves
apart as separate and distinct Deople The
father interpreted life literally. To him il was
constant struggle, full of hardships and
poverty, with humble and scanty fare at best.
Inere was III this life no scope for the imagina-
ton. The frost pictures on the window panes
called forth no exclamation of delight; thev
only urged their fire to a brighter, warmer
glow. Spring with her bushing train of wild.
bursting bloom had no other meaning than
that seed time had come. The long. law dava
OF summer with their soft winds, the constant
music OF the sea or the slender sickle of the
harvest moon awoke no echo of
sentiment IN their hearts. They were
Dut symbols in the calendar OF sea-
sons to urge the settler to his toll. The
reality OF constant need lett no time for train
ing. Even home was made up of angles and
harsher lines, unless softened by the presence
OF some fair Priscilla.
Lite was too serious for levity or pleasure,
unless the scang literature might have afforded
them something of the sort: for uDon their
activity IN telling forests, raising crops and un-
ceaslng watchfnlness against the inroad OF In-
aian and BEAST depended the enjoyment Of
their freedom.
The son grew mp like the father; of staid de
meanor, OF stern, nnelastic disposition, but rich
10 integrity, whose narrow horizon line of
thought was drawn within the low SUBMITS of
tne nelgn9orlng nils whose shadows Graded
his childish slumbers.
It was only when a century or more later the
barriers OF P0rltanism had been broken when
the tales of witeh-crait had grown into legends.
HAen ueW sectS DaQ cf9pt IN and the outer
world had brought its innovations of fashion
and folly that this quiet-paced, sturdy hard
grained people gained greater breadth of
thought and elasticity of action. With these
came new qualities, and yet, with all the
changes that time and letters have wrought,
whenever the occasion has called these old
Puritan characteristics crop out aud mark the
children OF today as the descendants of an
honored ancestry.
1t Is simple matter to identify and trace
New England character. 1t has dignity
and value OF its own. 1t is never above honest
occupation or labor. 1t never under-yalues
true worth and, more than that, poverty has
been no bar to prefernent; for out of its early
associations with want and self reliance has
come the brilliant qualities and better phases
of manhood whose examples, born among our
slopes and intervalas, have stretched hands
across the continent.
They were the common people, and from
them has come many man world-known and
world-famous. The heart of the nation is in
the hands of this class-never ornamental. but
always useful like the darkey's 'spender but.
ton, they do the solid work.
When great issues and principles are at
stake, when the disruption of the nation ia
threatened the common people, the spirit of
our forefathers always comes to the front to
night for the right, and the right prevails.
The more important industrial inventions
were used as illustrations by the speaker as
showing that the lowly homes of toll and want
have contributed their share to the worlds
development and wealth.