to, and does not, detract from the merits of Eliot. "It is a remarkable feature," to use the words of Grahame, "in Eliot's long and arduous career, that the energy by which he was actuated never sustained the slightest abatement, but, on the contrary, evinced a steady and vigorous increase. As his bodily strength decayed, the energy of his being seemed to retreat into his soul, and at length, all his faculties, he said, seemed absorbed in holy love. Being asked, shortly before his departure, how he did, he replied, 'I have lost every thing; my understanding leaves me, my memory fails me, my utterance fails me—but I thank God, my charity holds out still: I find that rather grows than fails.'" Eliot died in 1690, full of years and honors.[1]
Dnriug the time that Cromwell was at the head of affairs in England, the affairs of Massachusetts and her immediate neighbors were on the whole very prosperous. Cromwell favored them all he could, and, freed from outside interference, the New Englanders advanced steadily in their progress towards wealth and power. Every thing tended to the rearing of hardy, upright, self-reliant men. The fisheries nurtured a race of expert, daring fishermen; ship building became active; commerce increased; and trades of various sorts were in active operation. The Puritan legislators frowned upon every thing that tended to laxity of manners; they sternly watched over the morals of the community; wisely considering prevention as better than cure, they countenanced early unions; and although courtship carried on without permission of the girl's parents, or of "the next magistrate," was punishable with imprisonment, the magistrates might redress "wilful and unreasonable denial of timely marriage" on the part of parents. Adultery was a capital offence, and incontinence was punished with a severe discipline. Underhill, who, uniting, as he did, the gallantry of the soldier with his proverbial love of license, and of "bravery of apparel," having been accused of a backsliding of this nature, was summoned into the presence of the magistrates; and then, "after sermon, in presence of the congregation, standing on a form, and in his worst clothes, without his band, and in a dirty night cap, confessed the sin with which he had been charged;" and "while his blubberings interrupted him," says Winthrop, he dolefully lamented the loss of his "assurance," which, as he said, had been vouchsafed while enjoying a pipe of tobacco. The whole population were trained as militia, and a martial spirit was readily kept up. Several forts, and a good supply of artillery and ammunition, showed the determination of the people to maintain their rights at the price of blood if need be. Material prosperity was very much increased, and there was no lack of comforts and enjoyments of the good things of this life.
The founders of New England, to their credit be it observed, were sincerely anxious for the promotion of
- ↑ The learned Dr. Cotton Mather, in his "Life of the Renowned John Eliot," enters largely, and with a profoundly admiring spirit, into the history of Eliot's labors among the Indians. See Mather's "Magnalia," vol. i., pp. 526–583.
