6 NORTH SHORE BREEZE and Reminder 
good uncouth. The world is not ready yet to accept a literal 
construction of the Sermon on the mount But today there 
‘is a renascence of the Puritane conscience in its better 
aspect and more enlightened application, especially as it 
has led to the exposure of private greed and public 
wrong and provide a remedy. ‘The principles built into 
society by the fathers can alone sustain the nation through 
all its new occasions and new duties. 
Such were the fathers. The women, too, were a 
patient, pious, brave lot whose trials were yet greater 
for they had to endure the fathers also. Let us not think 
of these pioneers only as saintly and heroic, and lose 
sight of the prosaic and essentially human side of their 
nature . They were men of like passions with ourselves. 
Their motives were mixed. They had faith, but they 
wanted fish. They respected conscience, but expected 
cod. ‘Their piety was not altogether dissociated from 
pelts. And what was liberty without land! Said Capt: 
John Smith of Virginia, “I am not so simple as to think 
that any other motive than wealth will erect a common- 
wealth there, or draw a company from their ease and 
humors at home.” ‘The flag will follow trade is the popu- 
lar notion. But this opinion does not cover all the facts, 
nor tell the whole story. These colonies had a commer- 
cial basis. [he objects of the settlers were mainly reli- 
gious. The objects of the promoters was the money sup- 
posed to be in it. So while the promoters invested in 
the trading and fishing companies and themselves re- 
mained at home and drew the profits through their gov- 
erners and agents whom they appointed, the poor settlers 
were licensed to fish, fowl, hunt, hawk and trade with 
the Indians in the lands there about for the promoter’s 
benefit chiefly, for their own incidentally with all the 
hazards and hardships thereto pertaining. 
Without such financial backing these religious pat- 
riots could not have succeeded. It was a partnership 
secular and sacred. Had not the settlers been actuated 
by religious motives they would have abandoned the en- 
terprise, as did several who attempted to colonize on a 
purely commercial basis. Had they followed the 
track of their Spanish predecessors, the lust for 
gold and the enervating climate might have been 
tatal to their virtue and this fair continent blighted by 
cruelty and corruption, instead of the abode of civil and 
religious liberty, an asylum for the oppressed, an apostle 
of freedom for the world. ‘The time, place and the men 
were in happy conjunction. On their undertaking fate,— 
by which I mean providence—frowned at first and finally 
smiled. Exiled in Holland the Pilgrims would go to 
Virginia. But there religious freedom would have been 
denied them. Next, their intention was to settle near the 
mouth of the Hudson. But the Dutch, who were plan- 
ning a colony of their own at that place secretly per- 
suaded the captain of the Pilgrims’ ship to contrive de- 
lays and then conduct them to these northern coasts, and 
there under the plea of shoals and approaching winter, 
discouraging them from venturing to the haven of their 
desire. The barren sands of Cape Cod, which was their 
first view of the New World afforded but a gloomy pros- 
pect. But they endured as seeing Him who 1s invisible. 
They held on and held out. 
If the Planters could have had a glimpse of the glory 
that should crown their endeavors, how greatly would 
have they been sustained and cheered. But, like Abra- 
ham, they endured as seeing Him who is invisible: 
Time doth her chart unroll that we may see 
The Past, but not the Future yet to be. 
Our fathers, could they but have seen 
The changes to be wrought in their demesne— 
The latent beauty of the sylvan scene, 
The arts and industries on every hand, 
The glory of a nation vast and grand, 
Dowered with Freedom and divinely planned, 
A country blest o’er every land beside, 
How would hearts have thrilled with joy and pride! 
For us they toiled and bled in Freedom’s morn. 
We are free-born!! 
HOUSEBOAT, MARBLEHEAD HARBOR 
