AUSTERE PURITAN GARDENS 83 



ren holiness in the first place, they had been per- 

 secuted at home until reduced to the necessity of 

 flight into a strange land, or of yielding to the op- 

 pression of ecclesiastical authority which they hated. 

 Choosing the former, even those who had been reared 

 in affluence, if there were such, had known only 

 poverty and privation for a long term of years. 

 Every one had to work and work hard, in the land 

 of exile, for a bare living; and from the labor which 

 was necessary to keep soul and body together they 

 took no time save for worship; they left not a minute 

 for the cultivation of aught save the soil of their own 

 souls. Here each was ever wrestling to establish, 

 against the tares and in spite of often stony ground, 

 the "perfect flower of true piety," that they might en- 

 joy abundance when fruit time and harvest arrived. 

 Small interest could they feel and little energy could 

 they have, for gardens of this world. 



Holland has been called the school wherein the 

 Pilgrims were instructed and shaped for their great 

 work, west of the waters of the Atlantic. While this 

 is no doubt true in that Holland provided the instruc- 

 tion, it seems to me only fair to her to acknowledge 

 that her pupils accepted what she had to offer, with 

 reservations. From her great treasuries of tolerance 

 and generous wisdom they took absolutely nothing; 

 and not one whit of the Hollander's innocent delight 



