48 CALVINISTIC THEOLOGY. [CHAP. III. 



chosen people of God, should bequeath to their immediate posterity 

 such a philosophical spirit as must precede the organization by the 

 whole people of a system of secular education acceptable to all, 

 and accompanied by the social and political equality, of religious 

 sects such as no other civilized community has yet achieved 

 this certainly is a problem well worthy of the study of every 

 reflecting mind. To attribute this national characteristic to the 

 voluntary system, would be an anachronism, as that is of com 

 paratively modern date in New England ; besides that the de 

 pendence of the ministers on their flocks, by transferring ecclesi 

 astical power to the multitude, only gives to their bigotry, if they 

 be ignorant, a more dangerous sway. So, also, of universal suf 

 frage ; by investing the million with political power, it renders 

 the average amount of their enlightenment the measure of the 

 liberty enjoyed by those who entertain religious opinions disap 

 proved of by the majority. Of the natural effects of such power, 

 and the homage paid to it by the higher classes, even where the 

 political institutions are only partially democratic, we have 

 abundant exemplification in Europe, where the educated of the 

 laity and clergy, in. spite of their comparative independence of 

 the popular will, defer outwardly to many theological notions of 

 the vulgar with which they have often no real sympathy. 



To account for the toleration prevailing in New England and 

 the states chiefly peopled from thence, we must refer to a com 

 bination of many favorable circumstances, some of them of ancient 

 date, and derived from the times of the first Puritan settlers. To 

 these I shall have many opportunities of alluding in the sequel ; 

 but I shall mention now a more modern cause, the effect of which 

 was brought vividly before my mind, in conversations with sev 

 eral lawyers of Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, 

 whom I fell in with on this tour. I mean the reaction against 

 the extreme Calvinism of the church first established in this part 

 of America, a movement which has had a powerful tendency to 

 subdue and mitigate sectarian bitterness. In order to give me 

 some -idea of the length to which the old Calvinistic doctrines 

 were instilled into the infant mind, one of my companions pre 

 sented me with a curious poem, called the &quot; Day of Doom,&quot; 



