The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-01-06

Edward Eggleston has supplemented his
attractive book. "The Beginners Of the M
| ton" with 4 volume which he calls The
| Transit OF Civilization from England "a
America in the Seventeenth Century" tAp-
pletOn). In 1t one finds It clearly set forth
: that there was little civilization 10 make
/ the transit and scarcely any that did that
while there was a literature Of great value
the people who came over brought none 81
q; that Shakespeare aud Milton were not
for them. aId that. I'm fact. they just car
! ried over their English life IN q lump and
didn't fetch with them many Of it. srtcrs,
Of which there WAS little TO spare at home.
II IS a fact. made painfully apparent b.
the avalanche Of historical novels Of the
! Sixteenth Century having their scene I'm
this country. that outside OF Bancroft the
easily available sources Of history are few
and uncertain. says a writer IN the Phila-
delphia Times. E.en in Bancroft one ap-
prehends chiefly the workings In the Eng
lIsh Government AS applying with results
to the colonies rather than the colonial life
Itself.
Mr.. Esgleston's book II given in seven
chapters. each with marginal lines. witt
the general view printed I'm small types.
with reference to notes following each chap
ter. This keeps the subject well In hand and
relieves II In treatment from the embarrass-
ing presence Of marginalia. The first chap
ter treats OF the mental outfit OF the colo
nisis.
He says. IN taking account Of the mental
furniture which the early English emigran.s
carried aboard ship with them. we shall
gain a knowledge Ct the original Investment
- - 49, -
culture in America From the English
spoken In the days OF the Stuart Kings
came our primitive speech. and the opinions.
prejudices and modes Of thinking Of tie
English in that day lay at the bottom Of
what intellectual life there was in the col
onies. Some Seventeenth Century character
istics long since lost or obscured in England
may yet be recognized in the folklore
and folk-speech OF supersiitions and beliefs
OF people in America.
1.-THE number Of English who crossed the
seas before the middle of the century was
above 10000. Those who survived the first
rude onset of pioneer life. with their fast
multiplying rogeny. numbered probably
5000 IN 1870. and this population was about
halved between the colonies on the Chesa-
peake waters and those to the northward of
the Dutch settlement on the New England
coast. To these early corners is due that
the speech. usages. the Institutions and the
binding traditions OF the United States are
English.
in reckoning the mental outfit Of the
first Corners We should only mislead cur
selves by recalling the names of Jonson and
Shakespeare an. the other lights that were
Shining when the Susan Constant and her
two little consorts sailed out OF the Thames
to bear a company of English people to the
James River. Nor will It avail much to re-
member that Milton was q Puritan at the
same time with Cotton. Hooker and Win
throp. The emigrants had no considerable
part IN the higher intellectual life Of the
age. the great artistic passions Of Shake
speare and Milton touched them not at any
point Bacon's contribution TO the art Of
finding the truth did not belong to them.
Men may live In the same time without be-
ing intellectual contemporaries"
The second chapter makes a depression
concerning medical notions at the period of
the settlement, and Is rich in curious incl
dents belonging to the practice at that early
day. in which It IS noted that the colonists
fell into the common error of .unscientifc
men by overestimati1g the value OF the
hocus-pocus OF the savages. In
they were in 1896 pronounced
as able physicians as any in Europe. Indian
physic was in great part simply jugglery
against imaginary spirits. but in rough and
ready surgery the savages had some arts
useful in the exigencies of forest life. They
had herbs for cathartics and emetics; they
Taught the colonists the use OF various roots |
they believed were antidotes for the
OF the rattlesnake. Byrd is able to name
nearly q dozen of these supposed antidOtes.
One OF these. the so-called Seneca snake
root. came into great reputation in Europe
as a general medicine. John Clayton collect
ed 800 species OF plants used by the Indians
as remedies. Quacks in the colonies soon |
the trick of claiming to have medi-