EDUCATION. 



221 



of them obtain power in legislative assembly, 

 than j by a strange infatuation, they denied to 

 their brethren in the wilderness, the same 

 indefeasible right and privilege. They re- 

 newed, in the bigotry and narrow prejudices 

 of their minds, the persecutions and tortures, 

 which the primitive Christians had to endure ; 

 and blindly supposed to effect that by cruelty 

 and death, which their own experience should 

 have convinced them could only be reached by 

 persuasion, and altered by conviction. At the 

 same time, numbers were tortured, hung, and 

 exposed on gibbets, and many burnt to death, 

 for the supposed crime of witchcraft ; till at 

 length, the minds of these deluded fanatics 

 were seized with remorse, and a chain of 

 events followed, which gave to the inhabitants 

 of New England, the blessings of a diffusive 

 education, and a full enjoyment of the freedom 

 of religious opinion. Such indeed is the facility 

 of instruction now afforded to every branch of 

 the community, through the means of district 

 or parochial schools, that it is a rare circum- 

 stance to meet an individual who cannot read 

 and write, and converse in an intelligent man- 

 ner on all common subjects ; or a driver of a 

 stage, who will not c guess ' and ' calculate' 

 politics admirably. It is seldom that you hear 



