AUSTERE PURITAN GARDENS 83 
ren holiness in the first place, they had been per¬ 
secuted at home until reduced to the necessity of 
flight into a strange land, or of yielding to the op¬ 
pression of ecclesiastical authority which they hated. 
Choosing the former, even those who had been reared 
in affluence, if there were such, had known only 
poverty and privation for a long term of years. 
Every one had to work and work hard, in the land 
of exile, for a bare living; and from the labor which 
was necessary to keep soul and body together, they 
took no time save for worship; they left not a minute 
for the cultivation of aught save the soil of their own 
souls. Here each was ever wrestling to establish, 
against the tares and in spite of often stony ground, 
the “perfect flower of true piety,” that they might en¬ 
joy abundance when fruit time and harvest arrived. 
Small interest could they feel and little energy could 
they have, for gardens of this world. 
Holland has been called the school wherein the 
Pilgrims were instructed and shaped for their great 
work, west of the waters of the Atlantic. While this 
is no doubt true in that Holland provided the instruc¬ 
tion, it seems to me only fair to her to acknowledge 
that her pupils accepted what she had to offer, with 
reservations. From her great treasuries of tolerance 
and generous wisdom they took absolutely nothing; 
and not one whit of the Hollander’s innocent delight 
