Whose souls did bear an equal yoke of love
There needs should be a like proportion
Of lineaments, of manners, and of spirit.”
CHAPTER XII.
THE PILGRIM GOVERNMENT.
“A free republic, where, beneath the sway
Of mild and equal laws, framed by themselves,
One people dwell, and own no lord save God.”
Mrs. Hale’s Ormond Grosvenor.
Just here it is perhaps fit that the salient features of the unique government under which the forefathers lived and prospered should be briefly sketched; and in order that this exposition may be clear, claiming the privilege of a chronicler, we shall command the clock of this narration to stand still, while we peer at times into the then future, in tracing some law to its result, or in depicting the change of front of an exploded policy.