PURITANISM, POETRY OF
How is it, then, that out of the hard soil of the Puritan thought and character, out of the sterile rocks of the New England conscience, have sprung flowers of poetry? From those songless beginnings have burst, in later generations, melodies that charm and uplift our land—now a deep organ peal filling the air with music, now a trumpet blast thrilling the blood of patriotism, now a drum-beat to which duty delights to march, now a joyous fantasy of the violin bringing smiles to the lips, now the soft vibrations of the harp that fill the eyes with tears. What is it in the Puritan heritage, externally so bare and cold, that makes it intrinsically so poetic and inspired?—Samuel A. Eliot.
(2594)
PURITY
A pastor visiting in the home of a laundress exprest admiration of the whiteness of the linen hung out upon the lines. They gleamed in beautiful purity as compared with the dark slates on the roof of the house behind them. But presently snow fell and quickly covered the roofs and streets with an absolutely unsullied mantle, and now the linen clothes seemed actually to have lost all their whiteness. The preacher said to the laundress that the clothes did not look anything like so white as before. She replied, “Ah, sir, the clothes are just as white as they were, but what can stand against God Almighty’s white?”
It is a fact that the whitest sheet of paper looks yellow and dingy when placed on freshly fallen snow. So looks the morality of ordinary man beside the sinlessness of Jesus. (Text.)
(2595)
The ermine, whose fur is so famed for its perfect whiteness, has been taken as the emblem of the integrity and incorruptibility that should characterize the judiciary. Thus a judge is spoken of as wearing the ermine. The dainty little creature makes it the business of its life to keep clean. So strong is this instinct that it will suffer capture or welcome death rather than defilement. Knowing this, trappers and others seeking its fur will smear the paths it might take to escape, and it keeps itself unspotted, tho it yields its life. (Text.)
(2596)