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ship, and yet more recently in saving from utter wreck the small shallop which safely crossed the Bay from Provincetown to Clark's Island midst a fierce storm which threatened every moment to swamp the frail boat. That boat truly bore Cæsar and all his fortunes, for in it were Carver, Bradford, Winslow, Standish and Howland, and if those men had perished it is unlikely that the Plymouth Colony would have been heard of in history.

Surely no other settlement has been undertaken in such a spirit and never under more discouraging and hopeless circumstances. The details of the Pilgrim life at Plymouth have been amply and eloquently told it is needless for me to weary you with a story so well known; there was nothing to encourage those men except a single piece of good fortune that before their coming the Indians of the vicinity had been largely destroyed by disease, rendering them less exposed to hostile attack-other than that, and even of that they knew nothing but rumors, the story is one of prolonged hardship and suffering, of distressing losses by sickness, of near famine and of the doubtful struggle to maintain life itself. But they refused to be daunted and in the end overcame all obstacles and secured a lasting triumph in seeing their colony grow and strengthen until, after they themselves had passed on, it united with the stronger colony of Massachusetts and became a part of the great development of this mighty Republic.

But let us not misinterpret the spirit of the Pilgrims as applied to the present times, it never meant that we should be content to stand where they stood - Robinson's words apply now as they applied then, that men of our day should be "as ready and willing to embrace further light as that they had received;" to keep abreast of their spirit their descendants must also welcome the opportunity to see further" and it is for them to show their rightful descent by enlarging and developing the spirit of truth and freedom. We of this age will deserve little credit unless the seed so carefully sown three hundred years ago shall ripen into a richer fruit. Even if our Pilgrim ancestors fell short of their highest ideals, as all men and nations have fallen and always will, they gave us at any rate their manly struggle with trying experiences and depressing hardships and their ever hopeful courage as bases on which to build a solid edifice of popular government and free and enlightened institutions.

What other than a renewal of the spirit of earlier days sustained the men of the Revolution in their long contest and enabled them to embody in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States the principles clearly shadowed forth in the Compact of 1620-what other than that inspired the loyalty that preserved this great Union in 1861 and brought about the emancipation of the slave-what other than that spirit carried America into the recent world conflict and ranged her with no selfish aim on the side of imperilled civilization in Europe? And now when the storm has lulled what but that spirit with the added light of centuries of experience, of growing knowledge and developing wisdom will enable this Nation to gather in the full harvest of freedom and democracy? But the preservation of the ancient spirit in its full force and the extension of its influence requires the most constant watchfulnessespecially just now when, temporarily we believe, the public mind has lost something of its balance. The prevailing restlessness, the excited condition of the public, the abnormal situation in business affairs, the threatened financial disturbance, have combined to create a nervous tension which gives ominous signs of danger to great principles which lie at the foundation of republican institutions. This condition is not unusual as the result of war and was to have been expected after a war that swept in all the great nations of the earth. With us, it takes the form of a distrust of free thought and free discussion and we see an American Congress discussing the necessity of a return to alien and sedition laws which were tried in the infancy of our Republic and emphatically discarded by the intelligence of the people. What is needed now is not more laws but more respect for those we have and possibly a more judicious enforcement of them. Drastic legislation invading personal rights and so out of harmony with the general views of a very large section of the people as to require armies of officers and spies to enforce it, will not cure the disease attacked but is sure to increase the general ferment and bring into disrepute wise and salutary laws. It is the old story that well-meant reforms are apt to defeat their own ends if too hasty and sweeping and if forced upon a people unprepared for them and more than doubtful of their wisdom. Never more than now was calm judgment and deliberation needed in our public affairs. It is unthinkable that here in America we should fear the freest thought and widest public

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discussion, subject only to recognized limitations that no one can publicly advocate crime or incite or attempt the overthrow of our government. I have no fear that truth can be overcome by the ravings of ignorant or fanatical talkers, nor can I doubt that if speech becomes action or an obvious incitement to action an intelligent people will find ready means to protect itself.

An eminent Judge of the Federal Supreme Court has recently wisely said that it was better to let steam escape and be dissipated into thin air than to risk explosion by attempting to confine it. It was the foresight of the framers of the Constitution that forbade conviction for treason except upon the proof of overt acts by at least two witnesses surely for lesser public crimes we can rely upon due process of law without imperilling the sacred right of free thought and of such free speech as does not degenerate into unbridled licence. To be sure we have the embarrassment now that results from the extraordinary liberality of our emigration laws and we feel rightly indignant that aliens who seek the protection of our laws should violate decency and law in the attempt to foment trouble among our people. They must be sternly dealt with and the government must exercise its right of protecting itself by withdrawing its permission that they should remain among us, but even those men are entitled to fair hearings.

There is danger to the public welfare too in the facility with which pseudo Americans are allowed to stir up ill blood against nations with which we are at peace and to proceed to the very verge of illegality in interference with the domestic affairs of other nations. The mark of the true American, to the manor born or American by adoption, should ever be that he always and ever places the interests of America before those of any other land and never forgets that his allegiance to America admits of no possible allegiance elsewhere.

Freedom of thought-freedom of speech, obedience to the law are in full harmony with the true Pilgrim spirit as developed by three centuries of progress, for the Pilgrim - though the radical of his day and though he realized how abhorrent his principles were to the rest of the world-maintained his freedom of thought and speech, never looked unkindly upon the land he had left but put away the remembrance of the persecution and abuse from which he had suffered never conspired in any way against the government of his native land or against his neighbor, and above all things was im

patient of any disregard of orderly government or of disrespect for constituted authorities; - he was a practical man of action, but his acts were the result of careful thought and deliberation and ever of a deep and abiding faith in God and a sure reliance upon his guidance.

We want now as humble a spirit, as deep a faith and as pure a motive as he possessed. We may look beyond his ideals as the centuries have given more light, but while we pride ourselves that we have advanced free thought and a spirit of toleration we must be equally sure that we are firm in maintaining that advance and are not shaken by temporary gusts of popular excitement or passion.

Only then can we properly celebrate the 300th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims and lay claim to the descent of their spirit. We thankfully acknowledge what was praiseworthy in their lives and when we criticize their failings, we admit that we must prove by our actions that we of this generation have seen the "further light" and not only have seen it but have profited by it.

The Rev. HENRY W. FOOTE read the following

NOTES ON SOME MANUSCRIPT SERMONS PREACHED BY THE REV. SIMON BRADSTREET

IN MARBLEHEAD, 1743-1769

A number of years ago I found, among some old family papers which had belonged to my great-uncle, the Rev. William Orne White of Brookline, a package containing a dozen eighteenth century sermons written in a crabbed hand, with no indication as to their authorship, but with notes showing that they had been delivered in Marblehead between 1743 and 1769. I put them aside, intending some day to look into a history of Marblehead to see who had been minister there during that period. But one day last autumn, being in the Treasure Room of the Widener Library in Cambridge, my eye was caught by a small copy of the first volume of William Ames's Opera, published in 1658, which was lying in one of the exhibition cases. It had been placed there because it contained three autographs of interest, namely those of the second Simon Bradstreet (son of the Governor) and of his son and grandson, the third and fourth of the same name. The last of the three had added beneath

his name "Avus, Pater, Filius et Nepos, 1742." The Librarian's explanatory card beneath the book added the information that the second Simon Bradstreet (H. C. 1660) had been minister at New London, Connecticut; that the third (H. C. 1693) had been minister at Charlestown; and that the fourth had graduated from Harvard in 1728 and had been minister in Marblehead. Making further inquiries I found that the fourth Simon Bradstreet was born June 23rd, 1709, and was minister at Marblehead from 1738 till his death there on October 5, 1771.

Returning home with this information I looked once more at my packet of old sermons. They are made up in the shape of little booklets, each containing from sixteen to forty pages, save one which is only a fragment, the last four pages of a sermon. The pages are stitched together, and range in size from 5 by 32 to 6 by 4 inches. Each sermon is divided into two parts, or, rather, the same discourse served for both morning and afternoon services, the minister preaching to about the middle of his discourse in the morning and finishing it in the afternoon, though when he repeated a sermon he did not always divide it at the same point. On the last page of each sermon are memoranda as to its use. One was preached four (or five) times between 1751 and 1767; two were preached three times; the rest once each. The preacher generally noted the weather and attendance. After a sermon preached after the death of Judge Stephen Sewall there is a note on his character; another memorandum refers to the earthquakes of November, 1755; another to the young men recently returned from a fishing voyage; another to the writer's birthday.

It was this last sermon which completed the identification of the author. Its first memorandum is as follows:

Mhead. June 23, 1751, A & P M - being my Birthday when I entred upon my 42d year-Lord! I desire to praise Lord! I desire to praise & adore thee for all ye mercies of my past Life, & intreat thy forgiveness of all my past sins, & grace to improve ye future part of my Life to thy glory, ye good of thy people comitted to my Charge, and to my own eternal Salvation, Thro J. X. Amen.

It will be remembered that the fourth Simon Bradstreet was born June 23, 1709, so that he would have been forty-two on this day in