254 THE WHALE AND 



Common to praise a Puritan Ancestry. Puritan Morals. 



cribe our liberty, and every thing that is dear 

 to us, to their high principles and their consci- 

 entious practical regard to right. But with 

 how many, it is to be feared, is it like the Jews 

 building the sepulchres of the prophets, or like 

 the base Athenians giving the hemlock to the 

 virtuous living Socrates, and decreeing a statue 

 and panegyric to upright Phocion, whom they 

 had themselves put to death. 



For it has come to pass that an institution 

 which our fathers held in highest reverence and 

 kept with strictest care, is now, both by precept 

 and political statute and example, sadly dese- 

 crated, and that, too, with a boldness and pub- 

 licity that prove how wide and general is our 

 departure, both from their stern principles and 

 severe Christian morals. A noble New England 

 ancestry is justly a nation's boast ; nor can the 

 praise of our pious forefathers ever become too 

 popular, or their memory be held in too high 

 regard ; but we would like better to witness a 

 revival of their grave manners, and to see a ho- 

 lier regard paid to that sacred institution which 

 they prized and guarded above all others, and 

 therefore have we endeavored to draw attention 

 to one form of its desecration, that is doing not 



