and disgusted by the habits of a society opposed
to the rigor of their own principles, the Puritans went forth to seek
some rude and unfrequented part of the world, where they could live
according to their own opinions, and worship God in freedom.

A few quotations will throw more light upon the spirit of these pious
adventures than all we can say of them. Nathaniel Morton, *f the
historian of the first years of the settlement, thus opens his subject:

[Footnote f: "New England's Memorial," p. 13; Boston, 1826. See also
"Hutchinson's History," vol. ii. p. 440.]

"Gentle Reader,--I have for some length of time looked upon it as a duty
incumbent, especially on the immediate successors of those that have had
so large experience of those many memorable and signal demonstrations
of God's goodness, viz., the first beginners of this Plantation in New
England, to commit to writing his gracious dispensations on that
behalf; having so many inducements thereunto, not onely otherwise but
so plentifully in the Sacred Scriptures: that so, what we have seen,
and what our fathers have told us (Psalm lxxviii. 3, 4), we may not hide
from our children, showing to the generations to come the praises of the
Lord; that especially the seed of Abraham his servant, and the children
of Jacob his chosen (Psalm cv. 5, 6), may remember his marvellous
works in the beginning and progress of the planting of New England, his
wonders and the judgments of his mouth; how that God brought a vine into
this wilderness; that he cast out the heathen, and planted it; that he
made room for it and caused it to take deep root; and it filled the land
(Psalm lxxx. 8, 9). And not onely so, but also that he hath guided his
people by his strength to his holy habitation and planted them in the
mountain of his inheritance in respect of precious Gospel enjoyments:
and that as especially God may have the glory of all unto whom it
is most due; so also some rays of glory may reach the names of those
blessed Saints that were the main instruments and the beginning of this
happy enterprise."

It is impossible to read this opening paragraph without an involuntary
feeling of religious awe; it breathes the very savor of Gospel
antiquity. The sincerity of the author heightens his power of language.
The band which to his eyes was a mere party of adventurers gone forth
to seek their fortune beyond seas appears to the reader as the germ of a
great nation wafted by Providence to a p