292 A Century of Science 



palisade from Ash Street to Jarvis Field fur- 

 nished the occasion for the first distinct assertion 

 in the New World of the principles that were to 

 bear fruit in the independence of the United 

 States. 



But the most interesting event in the history of 

 the New Town before it became Cambridge was 

 the brief sojourn of the Rev. Thomas Hooker and 

 his company, from Braintree in England. In pop- 

 ular generalizations it is customary to allude to 

 our Puritan forefathers as if they were all alike 

 in their ways of thinking, whereas in reality it 

 would be difficult to point out any group of men 

 and women among whom individualism has more 

 strongly flourished. Among the numberless differ- 

 ences of opinion and policy, it was only a few 

 and mostly such as were related to vital political 

 questions that blazed up in acts of persecution. 

 For the disorganization wrought by Mrs. Hutchin- 

 son swift banishment seemed the only available 

 remedy ; but slighter differences could be healed 

 by a peaceful secession, which some people depre- 

 cated as the " removal of a candlestick." Such 

 a secession was that of Hooker and his friends. 

 The difference between Hooker's ideal of govern- 

 ment and Winthrop's has come to be recognized 

 as in some measure foreshadowing the different 



