against long hair in Corinthians as contrary to the custom in the apostle's day, induced our ancestors to think it criminal in all ages and all nations and to look upon it as one of the barbarities of the Indians. The rule in New England was that none should wear their hair below their ears. In a clergyman it was said to be the greater offence, as they were in an especial manner required to go with their ears open. A few years before tobacco was prohibited under a penalty, and the smoke of it in some manuscripts is compared to the smoke of the bottomless pit. Some of the clergy fell into the practice of smoking, and tobacco by an act of government was set at liberty. In England periwigs came into use soon after the restoration. In New England they were an eyesore for thirty years after and did not generally obtain until about the time of the revolution, and even then the example and authority of Dr. Owen and other nonconforming ministers who wore wigs were necessary to remove all scruples concerning them." It is one of the incidental proofs of the great influence of the clergy in colonial days that they were leaders in fashion as well as in theology, literature, and legislation. When Hutchinson deals with matters of vital importance it is in the same equable tone and temper. Efforts to instruct the Indians, persecution of so-called witches, interposition of civil authority when the church became high-handed, relations with the home government, and other such doings are all set down with greater impartiality than had been seen in any previous record and with little personal comment. The writer succeeded in blending into a continuous narrative the best and most trustworthy of the materials that had been left by his predecessors. Some of these documents must have seemed to him like scraps from the rag-bag, but after the thrifty custom of the time he managed to weave particolored strips and tangled yarns into a bright and serviceable fabric. When the distractions of his public station are considered, and toward the last the personal disturbance and loss of manuscripts attending the change in political conditions, and finally his ill-treatment at the court of the royal George, this three-volume history of Governor Hutchinson's becomes one of the most attractive examples of our early literature. Besides, it has an absorbing interest of its own, as every reader of it will ascertain. It is the review of one hundred and seventy years of colonial life, by a chief magistrate who, as the last of his line, saw it pass into the life of a new nation. As a royal governor and as a true American he told well, for his time, the story of what was then British America. As a good loyalist himself, his account of the devotion of Massachusetts Bay to the king a hundred years before the Revolution, is significant: "On the one hand, I think it appears that the government had not sufficient excuse for not complying more fully with what the King required of them by his letter in 1662. On the other hand, the commission was a stretch of power, superseding in many respects the authority granted by the charter, and there appears upon this occasion not an obstinate perverse spirit, but a modest, steady adherence to what they imagined at least to be their just rights and privileges. At the same time they endeavoured, not only by repeated humble addresses and professions of loyalty to appease his Majesty, but they purchased a ship-load of masts (the freight whereof cost them sixteen hundred pounds sterling) and presented to the King, which he graciously accepted. Contributions and subscriptions were also made for the fleet and for the relief of sufferers by the great fire in London." On the freedom of the press, he writes: "There had been a press for printing at Cambridge for near twenty years. The court appointed two persons in 1662, licencers of the press, and prohibited the publishing any books or newspapers which should not be supervised by them, and in 1668 the supervisors having allowed the printing of Thomas a Kempis de Imitatione Christi,' the court interposed, 'it being wrote by a popish minister, and containing some things less safe to be issued among the people,' and therefore they commended to the licencers a more full revisal, and ordered the press to stop in the meantime. In a constitution less popular this would have been thought too great an abridgment of the subject's liberty." And on the "Sabbath": "From a sacred regard to the religion of the Christian Sabbath, a scruple arose of the lawfulness of calling the first day of the week Sunday, as they always, upon any occasion, whether in a civil or religious relation to it, stiled it either the Lord's day or the Sabbath. As the exception to the word Sunday was founded upon its superstitious idolatrous origin, the same scruple naturally followed with respect to all the other days of the week and of most of the months, which had the same origin." The following may have interest this year, 1902: "The small pox, this year [1721] made great havoc in Boston and some adjacent towns. Having been prevented from spreading for near 20 years, all born within that time, besides many who had escaped it before, were liable to the distemper. Of 5889 which took it in Boston 844 died. Inoculation was introduced upon this occasion, contrary to the minds of the inhabitants in general, and not without hazard to the lives of those who promoted it, from the rage of the people. Dr. C. Mather, one of the principal ministers of Boston, had observed in the philosophical transactions, a letter of Timonius from Constantinople, and a treatise of Pylarinus, Venetian consul at Smyrna, giving a very favorable account of the operation, and he recommended a trial to the physicians of the town, but they all declined it except Doctor Boylston, who made himself very obnoxious. To show the confidence he had of success he began with his own children and servants. Many sober, pious people were struck with horror and were of opinion that if any of his patients should die, he ought to be treated as a murderer. The vulgar were enraged to that degree that his family was hardly safe in his house, and he often met with affronts and insults in the streets," etc. Aside from the three representative histories which have been mentioned there were other prose writings of the mid-century period, miscellaneous in character, largely theological, but with a goodly proportion of scientific, political, and philosophical topics interspersed. The most of this is not worth reading. It is interesting only as a sign that the colonial mind was broadening. A few titles, however, arrest attention. "Ptolemy, King of the Gypsies; New and True Egyptian Fortune-Teller," Boston, 1753, and the next year "Tom Thumb, the Monster of Monsters." As an antidote to these dangerous books appears "The Youth's Entertaining Amusement; or, A Plain Guide to Psalmody." The dissipation of the singing school had probably begun to threaten communities. But John Witherspoon's "Serious Inquiry into the Nature and Effects of the Stage," smothered any longings after the theatre which a Boston boy might have in his dreams. He would be an old man before he should witness a spectacular play in waking hours. The anonymous author of "Be Merry and be Wise," knew better than to go beyond the signature "T. T." in the year of the accession of George III. He was doubtless rebuked when he read in the following year Francis Worcester's "Rise, Travels, and Triumph of Death." In fine, the pleasantry of literature at this time is suggestive of the smile of a skull. Mather The poet of the age who was most appreciated was Dr. Mather Byles, the magnificent. He was more than half as accomplished and three-quarters as imposing as the magnate whose name he bore, the author of the "Magnalia." His unprofessional studies were in English classics as well as in ancient, a notable exception to the habit of his day. His proclivity for letters was surpassed only by his pulpit eloquence and his wit. He knew what was current in literary circles in England and corresponded with Lansdowne, Watts, and Pope. The last complimented the American poet by sending him a fine copy of his translation of the "Odyssey," a book which Dr. Byles accompanied with his own verses in lending it: "Go, my dear Pope, transport th' attentive fair, And soothe with winning harmony her ear, To be repeated by her gentle tongue. Old Homer's shade shall smile if she commend, And Pope be proud to write as Byles to lend." Beginning his versifying in college, he kept it up through life at intervals. It will not be necessary to prove that he was born and died a loyalist after the following example of his verse, which might have been entitled, "The King is Dead; Long Live the King!" "He dies! let nature own the direful blow, |