Bradford
says that there was immediate improvement when each family received the
full returns from working its own individual plot of ground. He thus
philosophizes about this social experiment of the Pilgrims:--
"The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried
sundry years, and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the
vanity of that conceit of Plato's and other ancients, applauded by some
of later times;----that the taking away of property and bringing in
community into a common wealth would make them happy and flourishing....
Let none object this is men's corruption, and nothing to the course
itself. I answer, seeing all men have this corruption in them, God in his
wisdom saw another course fitter for them."
America need not be ashamed of either the form or the subject matter of her
early colonial prose in comparison with that produced in England at the
same time.
JOHN WINTHROP, 1588-1649
[Illustration: JOHN WINTHROP]
On March 29, 1630, John Winthrop made the first entry in his _Journal_ on
board the ship Arbella, before she left the Isle of Wight for Massachusetts
Bay. This _Journal_ was to continue until a few months before his death in
1649, and was in after times to receive the dignified name of _History of
New England_, although it might more properly still be called his
_Journal_, as its latest editor does indeed style it.
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