History of American Literature by Reuben Post Halleck
page 38 of 431 (08%)
page 38 of 431 (08%)
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nothing, fitter to be kicked, if she were of a kickable substance, than
either honored or humored." He does not hesitate to coin a word. The preceding short selection introduces us to "nugiperous" and "nudiustertian." Next, he calls the women's tailor-made gowns "the very pettitoes of infirmity, the giblets of perquisquilian toys." The spirit of a reformer always sees work to be done, and Ward emphasized three remedies for mid-seventeenth-century ills: (1) Stop toleration of departure from religious truth; (2) banish the frivolities of women and men; and (3) bring the civil war in England to a just end. In proportion to the population, his _Simple Cobbler_, designed to mend human ways, was probably as widely read as Carlyle's _Sartor Resartus_ in later days. In criticism, Ward deserves to be remembered for these two lines:-- "Poetry's a gift wherein but few excel; He doth very ill that doth not passing well." SAMUEL SEWALL, 1652-1730 There was born in 1652 at Bishopstoke, Hampshire, England, a boy who sailed for New England when he was nine years old, and who became our greatest colonial diarist. This was Samuel Sewall, who graduated from Harvard in 1671 and finally became chief justice of Massachusetts. [Illustration: SAMUEL SEWALL] |
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