By what
means they attempted to realize their thought is quite another
question. Great events are not settled by sentimentalists, nor history
written in milk-and-water. Uninteresting in many ways the Puritans
doubtless were, but not in the least _spoony_.
The volume before us contains a vast amount of matter and fulfils
honestly what it promises. It tells all that is to be told in the way
of fact and statistics. The first settlers, the clergymen, the
enterprising citizens, the men of mark,--all their names and dates are
to be found here. Of the literary execution of the book we cannot speak
highly. The style is of the worst. If a meeting-house is spoken of, it
is a "church edifice"; if the Indians set a house on fire, they "apply
the torch"; if a man takes to drink, he is seduced by "the intoxicating
cup"; even mountains are "located." On page 68, we read that "the
pent-up rage that had long heaved the savage bosom, and which had only
been _smouldering under the pacific policy of Shurt_, now knew no
bounds, and burst forth like the fiery torrent of the volcano"; on the
same page, "the impending doom which, like a storm-cloud in the
heavens, had overhung with its sable drapery the settlements along the
coast, _and Pemaquid in particular.
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