The times., 1898-12-18

politan and less provincial, and parity TO
| the immense influx of foreigners of four
| or five different races directly opposed In
| character and influence to the old-fash-
ioned New England type.
In reading the introduction ITO this book
however, one comes to the conclusion tnat
| there is still considerable amount of the
best element of New England life remain
| ing. and that whether It wholly succeeds
In assimilating the new life poured in up
| on it. it Is making a strong endeavor TO
| do so. One of the points made in this
| introduction is particularly good. MI
Morris speaks at some length of the pub
| lie library system in New England cities.
towns and villages. This is one of their
| most noteworthy and commerdable iea-
| lures. More than the public school great
| as the influence of the common schoot mas
| been in America. more than the country
newspaper. which has but limited capital
| for its undertakings, the town iiprary mas
| contributed to the education OF poys anu
| girls. A community In which the ooohs
are all in private libraries cannot III the
| nature az things be as easily educated as
one In which the public library system
prevails.
No book-loyer likes to see his chsiee
editions thumbed by the herd: but IN inc
| public library the same books may pe
| had In cheaper editions quite as rsaiap e.
and the boy who might never look upon
the pages of a book IL his doing SO de-
pended on his earning the price OIL y;
| reads il eagerly and gets whatever eooi
there may be in it and in thirty or LEY
| other books. for the moderate, tax neces-
| sary to keep the library in cond'tfon
There are numerous odd facts recorded
in the chronicles which follow this intro
| duction some of the statements peiis
calculated to correct various errors en-
| In, rd
| early history of the region. For exam
| ple. in the history OF Salem. Mr.. Latirner
takes pains to state emphatically thar
there is no foundation for the statement
that witches were burned during the de-
fusion of 1892 and that no one was ever
burned in New England for witchcraft
or any other crime. Curiously enough.
there seems to be an impression ABROAD
in the land at present that the Wet ms
of the Salem witchcrait deiusion suiieieA
death by fire.
AS a matter of fact nineteen were hang
ed and one man was pressed to death.
This was in 1852, and as late as nuhdrea
years ago a woman was burned al inc
stake in England, while trials Tor Wilch-
craft took place both in England and scot
land for half century or more after the
delusion had disappeared never to revisit
New England Much also has been made
| of the persecution of the Quakers. They
were treated severely, IL is true, but IN
at least one case the Imprisonment was
due TO the fact that the victims considered
themselves called TO dispense with an
clothing and they would undoubtedly
| meet with the same fate in these more
! enlightened days. II is not much to be
wondered at that the stern Puritans con-
sideredi that such peculiar forms OF re-
lision ought not to be encouraged
One of the chapters of particular inter
est to the general public is that dealing
with Concord. which is the work OF r.
B. Sanborn, one of the few surviving
| friends of Emerson Thoreau. Parker and
Alcott. The little circle of philosophers,
noyelists. poets and artists who lived in
or near Concord in the first half OF the
century has had an immense and ever
widening influence on national lie anu
! literature: and the nature of this lnhu-
| ence has seldom been better defined than
! by Mr. Sanborn in speaking OF Alcott
Alcott was a sort of personiiication or
Concord: and because he was Concord
personified he could not well put himself
into a book Mr.. Sanborn says:
W.. NAV call the Imaginative force and breadth
of the Concord authors ''Shakespearian" for lack
of better word; but there was a man OF sngu-
lar mental penetration sometimes visiting mere
Jones Nery of Salen-who once made WIDER
! neralizati tioYl-yhether wisely not When Very
! was asked to discriminate betwixt Wisdom and
Genius, he said: Wisdom Is OF God; Genuis
is the decay OF Wisdom, adding. IN eNplana-
} ton TO the pre-existent Shakespeare, wisdom
was offered he did not accept IT, and 50 ne
? died away into genius We haa superior 10,
, sIge here Bronson AleotD who had tttie OF tne
Shakespearian genius but much Of that mystic
! . wisdom which Very thought older and nobler
than genius. Religion was his native air-the re-
Lgion of identity, not OF variety; he could hot
! be polytheistic, many Christians are, even
, while fancying themselves the most orthodox
, worshipers Of the one God. lie had that intense
application Of the soul to one side OF this sphere
of life. which led him 10 neglect the exercise
| of Intellectual powers that were amply his. HIS
} gift it was not TO expand our life into multi
. | plicty-wIich was the tendency of Emerson, as
. | of Goethe and Shakespeare-but to concentrate
multiplicity in unity, seeking ever the one
| source whence flow these myriad manifestations
His friends used 10 call him. in sport, the 'Norti
: | cal philosopher" because his specuatiols all
d | moved vertically toward center. were. occu
+ nied with repeating truth in many forms
| lie was a votary of the higher reason; not with
, out certain foibles OF the saint; but belonging
Enthusiastically 10 the sanity order. OF course he
was the mock of the market place, as all but the
) helgerent saints are; but he was profound, vi
| yifying influence in the lives OF the few who
| recognized his inward light.
The quaint picturesqueness of Cape Cod
is admirably brought out by Katharine
E Lee Bates in her paper on Cape Cod
r | towns She says of Provincetown, which
t | rests like a sea treasure in the closed fist
/ | of the cape:
The foreign element in Provincetown is moi
: all Portuguese. There is sprinkling o
many nationalities, especially lrish, and, more
numerous yet, English and Scotch from the
British provinces while saior-feet from all ovei
the globe tread the long plank walk of FROM
Street This famous walk built. after much
| wrangling. from the towns share OF the surplu:
: | revenue distributed by Andrew Jackson, and the
| story goes that the more stih-necked opponents
of this extravaganza refused their lifetimes long
to step upon the planks, and plodded indignantly
| through the sandy middle OF the road. Upon thi:
| chief thoroughflre stand several churches, look
ing seward Sailors in these waters used to stee
by the meetin' house steeples, which FIRE
| quent all along the cape Some of those early
churches struggle on with meager consrega
tions, and few are abandoned, the wind whist
ling through the empty belfries. ProvincctOwr
has a record of ancient strife between the 0rtho
5 dox and the Methodists. The established sect re
sented the Intrusion of the doctrine to suci
degree that they made bonfire of the timber
| designed for the<Methodist building The here
tics effectively retaliated by securing the key t.
the Orthodox meeting house. and singing Metho
dist hymns 10 the Orthodox bass viol. 1t wa
e thrty-two years before the diseomffted 0rthodo,
, | rallied sufficiently TO build themselves anothe
church.
Journeying from Provincetown, '.perched out oil
: a crest of alluvial sand'' up the wrist of th
cape, the land a-nlAking. At first tn
1 marsh-grasses begin to bind and hold it. low
bushes mat their roots about it, and plante,
tracts of pitch pine give the shifting waste
: real stability. The Pilgrims found they said
: but perhaps there Canaan dazzle in thei
eyes-their landing place well wooded and thu
$ soil "a spits depth, excellent black earth.
l But now all sads and garden ground must b
+, brought from a distance, and mulberry or
sycamore, even the most stuntcd apple tree tha
l squats and covers from the wind, is proud pos
session. When President Dwight, of Yale. rod
through Truro into Proyincetown century ago
4 he amazed at the sterity and bleak desola
1t rar. hale ~