n for scandal. Extravagance in "apparill both of men and women"
became the subject of repeated legislation: "we cannot but to our grief
take notice," so runs the law of 1651, "that intolerable excesse and
bravery have crept in uppon us, and especially amongst people of mean
condition, to the dishonor of God, the scandall of our profession, the
coruption of estates, and altogether unsuitable to our povertie."
Non-attendance at church did not become a problem for the magistrates
until 1646, but the fine then imposed proved ineffective; and year by
year the desecration of the Sabbath became more marked and more
difficult of correction. Many and sundry abuses were committed "by
several persons on the Lord's day, not only by children playing in the
streets and other places, but by youthes, maydes, and other persons,
both strangers and others, uncivilly walkinge in the streets and fields,
travelling from towne to towne, going on shipboard, frequentinge common
howses and other places to drinke, sport, and otherwise to misspend that
precious time."

"Maydes and youthes!" The words are significant, for by 1653 the first
generation of native-born New Englanders had indeed come upon the scene
to vex the Puritan fathers. How different from that of the first
settlers must have been the outlook of those who had never been in
England. They had never been oppressed by bishop or king; had never felt
the insidious temptation of a cathedral church, or witnessed the mockery
of the mass, or been repelled by a surpliced priesthood desecrating
God's house with incense and music; had never seen a maypole with its
accompaniment of licentious revelry, or witnessed the debauching effects
of a holiday festival. They had solemnly sat in unwarmed churches; they
had been present at elections; had seen men standing in the pillory or
women whipped through the streets; they had diverted themselves at
weddings or the husking-bee, or by walking in the woods, or by drinking
in a tavern. But no frivolous and superstitious world of Anti-Christ
compassed them about to point the moral of the harsh Puritan tale. Their
Puritanism was induced by precept and example rather than by the
compelling impact of a corrupt society.

Yet no conventionalized Puritanism, no mere living on the dead level of
habitual virtues could satisfy the leaders of the great migration. The
founding of Massachusetts was preeminently a self-conscious movement,
the work of able and resolute