THE PLAINS OF NAUSET. 
49 
there were no shades to give relief to his character, not 
much can be said of him. (Pity the Devil did not plant 
a few shade-trees along his avenues.) His heart was 
as pure as the new-fallen snow, which completely covers 
every dark spot in a field ; his mind was as serene as 
the sky in a mild evening in June, when the moon 
shines without a cloud. Name any virtue, and that 
virtue he practised; name any vice, and that vice he 
shunned. But if peculiar qualities marked his char¬ 
acter, they were his humility, his gentleness, and his 
love of God. The people had long been taught by a 
son of thunder (Mr. Treat) : in him they were in¬ 
structed by a son of consolation, who sweetly allured 
them to virtue by soft persuasion, and by exhibiting 
the mercy of the Supreme Being; for his thoughts 
were so much in heaven, that they seldom descended 
to the dismal regions below; and though of the same 
religious sentiments as Mr. Treat, yet his attention 
was turned to those glad tidings of great joy which 
a Saviour came to publish.” 
We were interested to hear that such a man had trod¬ 
den the plains of Nauset. 
Turning over further in our book, our eyes fell on the 
name of the Bev. Jonathan Bascom, of Orleans: “ Senex 
emunctae naris, doctus, et auctor elegantium verborum, 
facetus, et dulcis festique sermonis.” And, again, on 
that of the E-ev. Nathan Stone, of Dennis: ‘Wir humilis, 
mitis, blandus, advenarum hospes; (there was need of 
him there;) suis commodis in terra non studens, recon- 
ditis thesauris in coelo.” An easy virtue that, there, for 
methinks no inhabitant of Dennis could be very studious 
about his earthly commodity, but must regard the bulk 
of his treasures as in heaven. But probably the most 
3 
D 
