THE HISTORICAL RELATION OF NEW ENGLAND TO THE ENGLISH COMMONWEALTH. "Look now at American Saxondom; and at that little Fact of the sailing of the Mayflower, two hundred years ago, from Delft Haven, in Holland ! Were we of open sense, as the Greeks were, we had found a Poem here,— one of Nature's own Poems, such as she writes in broad facts over great continents. For it was properly the beginning of America: there were straggling settlers in America before, some material as of a body was there, but the soul of it was first this."-The Hero as Priest, Carlyle, 1840. "In ye name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, haveing undertaken for ye glorie of God, and advancement of ye Christian faith, and honour of our king & countrie, a voyage to plant ye first colonie in ye northern parts of Virginia, doe by these presents, solemnly & mutualy, in ye presence of God and one another, covenant & combine ourselves together into a civill body politick, . . . and by vertue hearof, to enacte, constitute, and frame such just & equall lawes, ordinances, acts, constitutions, & offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete & convenient for ye generall good of ye colonie, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience." Cape Cod, Nov. 11, 1620. -Pilgrim Constitutional Convention. ... "The event is without parallel in the history of any country. . . . It placed on Massachusetts that mental stamp which is destined to prevail over the whole of North America, and to affect the order of events in the old world." — Senate Doc. Massachusetts, 1852, Charles C. Hazewell. "Rev. John Cotton, . . . minister of Boston, in Lincolnshire, carried the name across the Ocean with him; fixed it upon a new small Home he had found there,— which has become a large one since; the big busy Capital of Massachusetts, Boston, so called. John Cotton, his mark, very curiously stamped on the face of this Planet; likely to continue for some time ! Oracular of high Gospels to New [and Old] England; who, in his day, was well seen to be connected with the Supreme Powers of this Universe, the word of him being as a live-coal to the hearts of many. . . . In fact, there are traceable various small threads of relation, interesting reciprocities and mutualities, connecting the poor young Infant New England with its old Puritan Mother, and her affairs, in those years. Which ought to be disentangled, to be made conspicuous and beautiful, by the Infant her |