cco il rio
Che mortali perigli in se contiene
Hor qui tener a fren nostro desio,
Ed esser cauti molto a noi conviene.

Those who roused the people to resistance; who directed their measures
through a long series of eventful years; who formed, out of the most
unpromising materials, the finest army that Europe had ever seen; who
trampled down king, Church, and aristocracy; who in the short
intervals of domestic sedition and rebellion, made the name of England
terrible to every nation on the face of the earth--were no vulgar
fanatics. Most of their absurdities were mere external badges, like
the signs of freemasonry or the dresses of friars. We regret that
these badges were not more attractive. We regret that a body to whose
courage and talents mankind has owed inestimable obligations had not
the lofty elegance which distinguished some of the adherents of
Charles the First, or the easy good-breeding for which the court of
Charles the Second was celebrated. But, if we must make our choice, we
shall, like Bassanio in the play, turn from the specious caskets which
contain only the Death's head and the Fool's head, and fix on the
plain leaden chest which conceals the treasure.

The Puritans were men whose minds had derived a peculiar character
from the daily contemplation of superior beings and eternal interests.
Not content with acknowledging, in general terms, an overruling
Providence, they habitually ascribed every event to the will of the
Great Being for whose power nothing was too vast, for whose inspection
nothing was too minute. To know Him, to serve Him, to enjoy Him, was
with them the greatest end of existence. They rejected with contempt
the ceremonious homage other sects substituted for the pure worship of
the soul. Instead of catching occasional glimpses of the Deity through
an obscuring veil, they aspired to gaze full on His intolerable
brightness, and to commune with Him face to face. Hence originated
their contempt for terrestrial distinctions. The difference between
the greatest and the meanest of mankind seemed to vanish when compared
with the boundless interval which separated the whole race from Him on
whom their own eyes were constantly fixt. They recognized no title to
superiority but His favor; and, confident of that favor, they despised
all the accomplishments and all the dignities of the world. If they
were unacquainted with the works of philosophers and poets, they were
deeply read i