t, and found it always
in demand. The woods and waters were lavish of gifts which were to be
had simply for the taking. The white wings of commerce, in their long
flight to and from the settler's home, wafted the commodities which
afford enjoyment and wealth to both sender and receiver. The numerous
handicrafts, which in its constantly increasing division of labor, a
thriving society employs, found liberal recompense; and manufactures on
a larger scale were beginning to invite accumulations of capital and
associated labor.

The Confederacy of the Four Colonies was an humble, but a substantial,
power in the world. It was known to be such by its French, Dutch, and
savage neighbors; by the alienated communities on Narragansett Bay; and
by the rulers of the mother country.

During Winthrop's last ten years, nowhere else in the world had
Englishmen been so happy as under the generous government which his
mind inspired and regulated. What one mind could do for a community's
well-being, his had done. The prosecution of the issues he had wrought
for was now to be committed to the wisdom and courage of a younger
generation, and to the course of events, under the continued guidance of
a propitious Providence.

CHAPTER II.

ESSAYISTS, MORALISTS, AND REFORMERS.

=_Joseph Dennie, 1768-1812._= (Manual, p. 497.)

From "The Lay Preacher."

=_150._= REFLECTION'S ON THE SEASONS.

"Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to
behold the sun."

The sensitive Gray, in a frank letter to his friend West, assures him
that, when the sun grows warm enough to tempt him from the fireside, he
will, like all other things, be the better for his influence; for the
sun is an old friend, and an excellent nurse, &c. This is an opinion
which will be easily entertained by every one who has been cramped by
the icy hand of Winter, and who feels the gay and renovating influence
of Spring. In those mournful months when vegetables and animals are
alike coerced by cold, man is tributary to the howling storm and the
sullen sky, and is, in the phrase of Johnson, a "slave to gloom;" but
when the earth is disencumbered of her load of snows, and warmth is
felt, and twittering swallows are heard, he is again jocund and free.
Nature renews her charter to her sons.... Hence is enjoyed, in the
highest luxury,--

"Day, and the sweet approach of even and morn,
And sight of vernal bloom and summer's rose,
And flocks, an