Realizing the heavy debt that we owe to the men who were led to undertake the settlement of Plymouth we owe an equal if not greater debt to the women who had the courage and spirit to enter with them into the great and epoch making adventure. These make the shrines which we would visit. It is with reverence that we view not only the soil which first they trod but every spot associated with them.
If history as some one has said is in its unchangeable essence a tale, then this particular history is a tale that cannot be too often told or heard, not merely to hold our attention to the past but by its light to look forward with a thrill to the future, to the tasks and service for civilization, under the Providence by which the women of the Mayflower and the women of Plymouth were upheld. This will be the best memorial we can give these women all through the years; the remembrance that cannot fade.
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation errors have been corrected.
[Page 129]: “whom she had recenly” changed to “whom she had recently”
[Page 138]: “our earlist acquaintances” changed to “our earliest acquaintances”
[Page 156]: “ceremonious assent” changed to “ceremonious ascent”
[Page 192]: “Declaration of Independance” changed to “Declaration of Independence”
[Page 193]: “another repetion of the exact name” changed to “another repetition of the exact name”