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.

John Winthrop was born in the County of Suffolk, England, in 1588, the year
of the defeat of the Spanish Armada. He was a wealthy, well-educated
Puritan, the owner of broad estates. As he paced the deck of the _Arbella_,
the night before he sailed for Massachusetts, he knew that he was leaving
comfort, home, friends, position, all for liberty of conscience. Few men
have ever voluntarily abandoned more than Winthrop, or clung more
tenaciously to their ideals.