ad
emigrated in order to enjoy a higher degree of religious liberty than
was now to be found in America, where men were divided into sects,
thinking more of their distinguishing tenets than of the Being whom they
professed to serve. Forgetting the reasons which brought them from home,
or quite possibly carrying out the impulses which led them to resist
their former neighbours, these men set to work, immediately, to collect
followers, and believers after their own peculiar notions. Parson
Hornblower, who had hitherto occupied the ground by himself, but who was
always a good deal inclined to what are termed "distinctive opinions,"
buckled on his armour, and took the field in earnest. In order that the
sheep of one flock should not be mistaken for the sheep of another,
great care was taken to mark each and all with the brand of sect. One
clipped an ear, another smeared the wool (or drew it over the eyes) and
a third, as was the case with Friend Stephen Dighton, the quaker, put on
an entire covering, so that his sheep might be known by their outward
symbols, far as they could be seen. In a word, on those remote and sweet
islands, which, basking in the sun and cooled by the trades, seemed
designed by providence to sing hymns daily and hourly to their maker's
praise, the subtleties of sectarian faith smothered that humble
submission to the divine law by trusting solely to the mediation,
substituting in its place immaterial observances and theories which were
much more strenuously urged than clearly understood. The devil, in the
form of a "professor," once again entered Eden; and the Peak, with so
much to raise the soul above the grosser strife of men, was soon ringing
with discussions on "free grace," "immersion," "spiritual baptism," and
the "apostolical succession." The birds sang as sweetly as ever, and
their morning and evening songs hymned the praises of their creator as
of old; but, not so was it with the morning and evening devotions of
men. These last began to pray _at_ each other, and if Mr. Hornblower was
an exception, it was because his admirable liturgy did not furnish him
with the means of making these forays into the enemy's camp.

Nor did the accession of law and intelligence help the matter much.
Shortly after the lawyer made his appearance, men began to discover that
they were wronged by their neighbours, in a hundred ways which they had
never before discovered. Law, which had hitherto been used for the
purpo