nts on the
will of husband or father, as husband and father saw in them saints
like himself, souls hallowed by the touch of a divine Spirit and called
with a divine calling like his own. The sense of spiritual fellowship
gave a new tenderness and refinement to the common family affections.
"He was as kind a father," says a Puritan wife of her husband, "as dear
a brother, as good a master, as faithful a friend as the world had." The
wilful and lawless passion of the Renascence made way for a manly
purity. "Neither in youth nor riper years could the most fair or
enticing woman draw him into unnecessary familiarity or dalliance. Wise
and virtuous women he loved, and delighted in all pure and holy and
unblameable conversation with them, but so as never to excite scandal or
temptation. Scurrilous discourse even among men he abhorred; and though
he sometimes took pleasure in wit and mirth, yet that which was mixed
with impurity he never could endure." A higher conception of duty
coloured men's daily actions. To the Puritan the wilfulness of life, in
which the men of the Renascence had revelled, seemed unworthy of life's
character and end. His aim was to attain self-command, to be master of
himself, of his thought and speech and acts. A certain gravity and
reflectiveness gave its tone to the lightest details of his converse
with the world about him. His temper, quick as it might naturally be,
was kept under strict control. In his discourse he was on his guard
against talkativeness and frivolity, striving to be deliberate in
speech, and "ranking the words beforehand." His life was orderly and
methodical, sparing of diet and self-indulgence; he rose early; "he
never was at any time idle, and hated to see any one else so." The new
sobriety and self-restraint showed itself in a change of dress. The
gorgeous colours and jewels of the Renascence disappeared. The Puritan
squire "left off very early the wearing of anything that was costly, yet
in his plainest negligent habit appeared very much a gentleman."

[Sidenote: Puritanism and culture.]

The loss of colour and variety in costume reflected no doubt a certain
loss of colour and variety in life itself. But as yet Puritanism was
free from any break with the harmless gaieties of the world about it.
The lighter and more elegant sides of the Elizabethan culture harmonized
well enough with the temper of the Calvinist gentleman. The figure of
such a Puritan as Colonel Hutchinson stands