New-York tribune., 1900-07-22


ship masters to give security for returning such
/ passengers to the port whence they came
1t was also enacted that Quakers who should
/ find entrance to the colony should be whtDpedt
and committed TO the House Of Correction, and
kept constantly at work, and prevented from
! holding communication with any person WINE
Z in confinement. Heavy fines We're imposed upon
those who should have in their possession
Quaker books who should defend their opin-
ions
! OF course, the QuaIzers continued 70 come.
/ suffering the penalties. The laws were only
more stringent, until in 1903 Massachusetts,
/ passed by one vote, a law which provided that
/ if any Quaker should return 20 the colony after
having been banished he should be put TO death
i Or. ByingtOn says that there is good reason for
/ believing that a decided majority Of the people
I in the colony never approved this law. and
/ after four Quakers had fallen victims to il
action set in that the law became dead
! letter. and at last was repealed This healthy
/ reaction was inevitable. for the coIonists could
not, being what they were, perpetuate in Amer
/ lea the intolerance from which they had fed
! across the seas One Of the reasons given by
/ Thomas Hooker and his friends. when they
wished to remove from the Massachusetts colony
| and establish themselves in the Connecticut
! Valley. is eloquent Of the Puritan temperament.
| They were moved To go. they said, because OF
| the strong bent Of their spirits 20 remove
| thither." Yet that the Puritans should ever
have been bigoted at all Will always be puZzlinS-
The second and third generations were below
| the first in culture and refinement OF manners.
but as DR.. Byington remarks. the Puritan min
| lister was always man OF very great impOr-
| tance, and he was apt TO possess education and
| culture. Many of them were well versed in
| English history. There were great Statesmen
among them, and the general court did well TO
consult them on the most important crises IN
the history Of the colonies" This being the
case. it is the more surprising that common
sense and statesmanship, since they were pos
sessed by cIergymen. did not inspire those
worthless 10 a enlightened attitude toward
Quakers, witches and other troublOus indi-
| viduals. Perhaps. however. it is difficult for
the modern mind wholly to grasp the fun sig
nificance of the condition affecting the Puritan
era. Cutting loose not only from the obnoxious
| elements in English life. but from the safe
guards of an ancient civilization. they were
filled with present sense of strangeness.
of change OF dangers. and OF wholly novel re-
sponsibilties. 1t not unnatural for them
to attach themselves 70 religious ideas which
they could clearly understand. Anything going
too far along paths Of mysticism was bound TO
create bewilderment and opposition 1t is sig
nificant that in the time of the Great Awaken
ing, when the standard Of purity had fallen far
beneath that maintained By the Fathers. Jona-
than Edwards in recalling the recalcitrants to
their duty. achieved success by preaching a
vigorous form OF CalYin;sn- He reused his pe1-
pie he saw that it was necessary TO deepen
the sense of personal responsibility" and he
realized that he could not talk in the air. but
had 10 strike out from the shoulder and bring
up the sinners with round turn He oe-
Heved and taught that love is the CHIEF Of he
| Christian graces and that from love Of God all
other graces follow" But for all his uetaPhysi-
cal power. he seems to have driven his lessons
home with wonderful Iucidity and force and
/ with drastic vehemeuCe. He was the kind Qt
man the Puritans needed. The whole trend %
DR. Byington's book is 10 show that our fore
! fathers were hardheaded people who accom-
pIished great things because they and their
teachers were accustomed 10 rugged ways u
. thinking and acting, To straightforward apU-i-
cations of the Gospel of Truth.
4 We regret that DIT. ByingtOn has placed AZ
the end of his book a chapter on Shakespeare
and the Puritans. which exhibits far less in
sight than We observe in the preceding pages
The author does not find in the plays or poems
any testimony TO sympathy with the PUrlJanS,
and this leads him into rather futile dis
duisition on the moral elements in Sha6espeare-
The truth is" he says. Shakespeare never
rises into the region OF Christian faith. He
gives no pictures Of sublime. self-saCrifcius
goodness. or the love OF Christ He seems 70
have no confident expectation Of human i'm