Enthusiasm had made them Stoics,
had cleared their minds from every vulgar passion and prejudice,
and raised them above the influence of danger and of corruption.
It sometimes might lead them to pursue unwise ends, but never to choose
unwise means. They went through the world like Sir Artegal's iron man
Talus with his flail, crushing and trampling down oppressors, mingling
with human beings, but having neither part nor lot in human infirmities,
insensible to fatigue, to pleasure, and to pain, not to be pierced by
any weapon, not to be withstood by a n barrier.
Such we believe to have been the character of the Puritans.
We perceive the absurdity of their manners. We dislike the sullen gloom of
their domestic habits. We acknowledge that the tone of their minds was
often injured by straining after things too high for mortal reach:
and we know that, in spite of their hatred of Popery, they too often fell
into the worst vices of that bad system, intolerance and extravagant
austerity, that they had their anchorites and their crusades,
their Dunstans and their De Montforts, their Dominics and their Escobars.
Pages:
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228