Calvinism bred athletes
as well as maniacs.
The new situation, again, turned many of the theoretical
speculations of the colonists into practical issues. Here, for
example, was the Indian. Was he truly a child of God, possessing
a soul, and, if so, had he partaken of the sin of Adam? These
questions perplexed the saintly Eliot and the generous Roger
Williams. But before many years the query as to whether a Pequot
warrior had a soul became suddenly less important than the
practical question as to whether the Pequot should be allowed any
further chances of taking the white man's scalp. On this last
issue the colonists were unanimous in the negative.
It would be easy to multiply such instances of a gradual change
of view. But beneath all the changes and all the varieties of
individual behavior in the various colonies that began to dot the
seaboard, certain qualities demanded by the new surroundings are
felt in colonial life and in colonial writings. One of these is
the instinct for order, or at least that degree of order
essential to the existence of a camp.
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