But all three were university bred
and were natural leaders of men.
Once arrived in the wilderness, the pioneer life common to all of
the colonists began instantly to exert its slow, irresistible
pressure upon their minds and to mould them into certain ways of
thinking and feeling. Without some perception of these modes of
thought and emotion a knowledge of the spirit of our literature
is impossible. Take, for instance, the mere physical situation of
the first colonists, encamped on the very beach of the wide ocean
with an illimitable forest in their rear. Their provisions were
scanty. They grew watchful of the strange soil, of the new skies,
of the unknown climate. Even upon the voyage over, John Winthrop
thought that "the declination of the pole star was much, even to
the view, beneath that it is in England," and that "the new moon,
when it first appeared, was much smaller than at any time he had
seen it in England." Here was a man evidently using his eyes with
a new interest in natural phenomena. Under these changed skies
the mind began gradually to change also.
Pages:
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41