and set down most judicious remarks upon all he saw or did. Thus Virginia has the honour of a founder, who was at once a hero, a scholar, a man of science, and a man of the world; and what is more, "a most right honest man." The old world were soon made acquainted with the new, through the medium of his pen. He published his sixth voyage to Virginia in 1608; the first voyage to New England, with the old and new names, 1614; a relation of his second voyage to New-England, 1615; and a description of the country, in 1617; New-England's trials, in 1620, and the general history of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles. Purchas had previously published Smith's adventures in other parts of the world. Such a man might be supposed to have given an impulse to an infant settlement, beyond that of common adventurers; but his followers wanted concert and sympathy with each other, and did not profit by his example and advice, as they ought to have done. The pilgrims were of a different class. They had left England for religious freedom; had sojourned for a time in Holland; and had ventured upon these shores, in an inclement season, buoyed up by the belief, that the God they worshipped would go before them, and help them in the wilderness. No They had quarrelled with the church of England, and abhorred the church of Rome. From the austerity of their lives, and the simplicity of their manners and habits, they had in their own country received the name of Puritans, and had received it as a common appellation. The doctrines they professed, it is not my intention now to discuss, or offer an opinion upon them. matter who were right or who were wrong; these Puritans had opened a discussion, which ages will not close. A handful of men were landed on the coast of New-England, and as it often happens in human events, their very feebleness became their protection. If their numbers had been considerable, the Indians would have been jealous of them, and associated then, as they did fifty years afterwards, to destroy them. They were at first to the natives rather subjects of curiosity than fear. These emigrants were a reading and a thinking people. They had been bred in the warfare of religious controversy, and each, and all, could give the reasons for the faith within them. They had left numerous connexions in England, who were anxious to hear from them; ligious friends, who were desirous of knowing how they prospered in building up a church. and re On the return of every vessel to their native land, men, women, and children, wrote of all they had seen, suffered, or enjoyed, to the most minute circumstance. The extraordinary events of every changing season, (and every event is extraordinary, when men are placed in new and singular situations,) were faithfully recorded by the leaders of this little band, with the minuteness of a missionary journalist, of the character of which they were. Distance of place, and novelty of situation, give importance to trifles in themselves; and all the small things have become great, from the greatness of their results. But from whatever cause it may have happened, the fact is certain, that every thing relating to these early settlers, has come down to us in the most authentic form. The next settlement, was that of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, in 1630. These people came able handed, with wealth and wise men, whose objects were of this world and the next united. They were men of distinction in their own land; were also learned in all the wisdom of the age, and had well defined plans of religious associations and political institutions. They began their labours at once with courage, and pursued them with success. Here was at once opened the widest field for their exertions. They could here reason upon the divine right of kings without fear of the axe, and speak of the Pope without fear of the faggot. They construed the Magna Charta as they pleased, and interpreted the Scriptures as the Spirit gave them light and utterance. These second comers were in full communion, in most things, with the pilgrims; and the course they followed was so nearly alike, that in the further view of our subject, we shall not make any discrimination between them, in a moral point of view; for if these streams were not then united, they ran side by side until their waters commingled and flowed on together. I have said that they were acquainted with the literature of the age; but the great fountain of their knowledge was the Bible. From this they drew their morals; and where could purer morality be found? From this they supplied their religious creed; and from whence shall revelation come, if not from the sacred word? From this they drew their political creed, that “those who ruled over men should be just, ruling in the fear of God." From the scriptures they drew their knowledge of men; and what history is so full of the workings of the human heart? From this book they derived their knowledge of their vernacular tongue; and I would ask, what book there is to be found of purer English, than the translation of the Bible? I am not contending for the accuracy of every translation; but it will not be denied, when I say, that a very copious vocabulary of good English words may be made from the pages of the common version of the Bible. Their philosophy of the mind, and their knowledge of the character of the Supreme Being, was also sought for in the hallowed pages of the Bible; precisely where they ought to have been sought for. It is by example as well as precept that we profit in our lives and conversation, and what book can be found that will furnish us with so many models of meekness, patience, honourable feeling, generosity, and affection, as the sacred volume? It is full of historical detail, of incident, and dramatic effect. There is in it every species of writing from the simplest narrative to the most affecting tragedy. The sweetness of its verse, the loftiness of its poetry, the boldness of its delineations, and, above all, the warmth of its descriptions, and the depth of its inspiration, all conspire to suit, in some part or other, every taste and capacity. The child is delighted with reading the Bible. The young man, yea, all men look into it for lessons of elocution; and the poets dwell upon it for models of composition. Many of our fathers read the scriptures in the original Hebrew ; for they were more than any other race of men of this country versed in all the niceties and beauties of that language. It is a primitive tongue, if any one can be called so, and it seems to carry you back to the elements of thinking and speaking. I perhaps dwell on this subject with enthusiastic fondness, but I love to come often and drink of the "Sweet waters welling from the sacred spring." There was a The settlers of the province of Massachusetts Bay had as much piety, more learning, and more ambition, than the pilgrims; they began stronger handed, and if with no more fixedness of purpose, certainly, with more clearness of design, than the pilgrims; but no men could have higher claims to moral worth than the first settlers of Plymouth. The leader and first Governor of this bay province, was a lawyer, and a most eloquent and learned man. precision and a legal cast of character in all their proceedings, which show that the framers of their laws were not unacquainted with the technical language of the English statute books, and the courts of justice. Their religious opinions prevented them from being favourites at home; but they were not forced to come abroad. There was as much of adventure as of necessity in their emigration. With their prayers for protection and prosperity were mingled visions of their future glories. They had learned from the sacred volume that means were necessary to produce ends, even when God himself had ordered the thing to be done, and the connection between them could not be seen by the limited understandings of men. The hands of Moses must be raised, that Moab might be smitten, although his hand grasped no sword, and he was afar from the field of battle. They fixed on the means which, in the ordinary course of providence produced such ends as they prayed for. To watch the humble mansion as it was erected; to listen to all the patriarchal instruction as it flowed at the family altar; to contemplate the rude structure in which public worship was at first performed; to note the infant seminaries of instruction as they arose; to watch the police, apparently as simple as that of the barbarians around them, yet still guarded by every great principle embraced in the charter of British liberties, and the still greater principles of the moral law, founded upon justice, and written on the human heart; to do all this, and more, would be a delightful task; but it is the privilege of but few to indulge minutely in these retrospections, so honourable to our fathers and so useful to us. Our fathers had failings, for they were but men. It will be found, however, that the more they are inspected, and tried, the more conspicuous will be their merits, and the deeper will be the sense of our obligations to them for what they did. I will endeavour, with as much justice and impartiality as I can, to go up to the springs of our institutions, and trace the sources of our literature and sciences; and will, as fairly as I am able, give the brief history of the merits of the colonies as they arose and flourished; but as I proceed through details of the history of their minds and its productions, I shall ask for the candid remarks of the enlightened and liberal, and I promise to profit by judicious hints and honest criticisms. I am nothing more than one of the pioneers in the great work of redeeming our fame from the foul aspersions of our enemies. I have written for the instruction of the rising, and to awake the recollections of the risen generation. I invoke the scholar and the patriot to aid me in this undertaking, that justice may be done to our common country. The fond hope of sometimes catching the ear of taste, and of eliciting the approving smile of beauty, has often cheered me in my labours, but if the patriotick should not hear my invocations, or taste lend her ear, nor loveliness lavish her smiles, still I can console myself with a consciousness that my admiration of the reputation of our ancestors, and the wish to do some good to my fellow-men, were the strongest motives for my exertions. LECTURE III. 'So Providence for us, high, infinite, Or seems but to deny, or in denying grants." In making our researches, for the literature of any particular period, we must necessarily go to the men of that age; for who they were, and what they did, are so intimately connected with what they wrote, that it may be the better course to name some of those, together with their works, who first enlightened the country by their literary and religious labours. In the little band of pilgrims, there were several men of cultivated minds. The venerable Brewster, who was chosen the ruling elder among them, had been educated in the school of diplomacy; having been secretary to one of the ambassadors of Elizabeth. He was a brave soldier, and well acquainted with the military tacticks of his time. His talents, united to his gravity, age, and sanctity, made him a very proper person for a leader. Carver, the first governor of Plymouth, was also a man of enterprise, intelligence, and great benevolence, and quite a business man; and his letters upon the contract he had made with the Virginia Company, show him to be a well educated one. Bradford, who was governor after the death of Carver, was a man of sense; was bred a lawyer; was a good scholar, well read in the modern languages, and knew something of the classicks. This gentleman kept a most minute and faithful journal of events; but they were not all published, and most of them have been lost. Some few scraps have been found, which are now in the Massachusetts Historical collection; but Moreton and others had read his manuscripts, and it is probable, we have no small portion of their substance in other works. Miles Standish, their military captain, was not only a good soldier, but highly respectable in point of acquirements; having been appointed, in difficult times, an agent for the company in England, and sent over as a financier; and it was thought his mission was well éxecuted when he was able to hire money at fifty pounds on |