friend of
Cromwell, sacrificing all scholarly delight to his country's need,
champion of freedom, worshiper of truth, building in neglected solitude
his epic,--his works are less than Shakspere's, but _he_ is greater than
the imaginary Hamlet, Othello, or Brutus.

Cromwell is in action the counterpart of Milton in thought,--a heroic
nature struggling with irreconcilable elements. Each is confronted by a
situation as difficult as Hamlet's; but though they cannot fully master
it, they deal with it like men.

Here is the true advantage of the men of religion over Shakspere and his
creations,--here is the greater world than Shakspere saw,--men grappling
with their fate and in the struggle working out heroic lives.

The finest type of the New England colonists is seen in the Winthrops,
father and son. When the migration is determined on, the son writes:
"For myself, I have seen so much of the variety of the world that I
esteem no more of the diversities of countries than as so many inns,
whereof the traveler that hath lodged in the best or the worst findeth no
difference when he cometh to his journey's end; and I shall call that my
country where I may most glorify God and enjoy the presence of my dearest
friends. Therefore herein I submit myself to God's will and yours, and,
with your leave, do dedicate myself (laying by all desire of other
employments whatsoever) to the service of God and the company herein,
with the whole endeavors both of body and mind."

The elder Winthrop is shown to us in the Journal or chronicle of the
Massachusetts colony, a sombre record of seemingly petty events; in his
religious diary of an earlier period; and in his domestic letters, which
are full of manly strength and sweetness. He combined some of the chief
elements of greatness,--loftiness of aim; a character disinterested,
patient, modest, brave; deep religious experience; and personal
tenderness.

To a man like Winthrop, the heart of his creed was that man's true aim is
moral perfection and a living relation with a Divine Lover. The sense of
a Divine Presence--inspiring, ruling, gladdening--is what his religion
means to him. In this quiet country gentleman, portrayed in his private
diary, is an intense play of feeling and imagination, concentrated on the
attainment of a personal and social ideal.

All this introspective fervor merged into a public enterprise,--the
transplanting of a church and colony to Massachusetts Bay. The