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who formed the great majority of the Presbyterians, seceded on the 4th of March, 1836. The Congregationalists, the Baptists and the few remaining orthodox Presbyterians are still known and recognized as the "Three Denominations," whose meetings are now held in the Congregational Library, Bloomfield Street. The library of Dr. Williams, however, is still the common property of the Dissenters and as such is used by them. The only change is, that the three bodies have ceased to hold their meetings in that library.

The facts, to which we have thus briefly alluded, have led us to reflect upon the practicability and expediency of establishing a Puritan Library and Museum in New England. Is it not desirable to concentrate in some one of the large cities of New England, the capital for example, a collection which shall do honor to the Puritan name and be a fitting testimonial of our gratitude to the great men to whom, under God, we owe our civil and religious liberties?

What departments or branches should such a Library and Museum include?

I. Books, pamphlets and periodicals published by the Puritans in England and in this country. It should embrace, as far as possible, all the writings of the leading Dissenters and Puritans, especially, from the reign of Elizabeth, and even from the first germs of Dissent in the days of Wiclif, down to the present period. It should comprehend the works of those noble men in the times of Henry VIII. and Edward VI, who had a leaning towards a dis-established church and who were in favor of a thorough reformation. Its shelves should be adorned, if practicable (as in many cases it would be) with the early editions of the four folios, fifty-eight quartos, forty-six octavos, and twenty-nine duodecimos of Richard Baxter; with the eloquent productions of Dr. Bates, the Dissenting Melanchthon; with the two folios of John Howe, of whom it has been said, “nihil nisi magnum unquam nec sensit nec dixit, nec fecit;" with Dr. Owen's learned labors, which induced many eminent foreigners to make a voyage to England in order to converse with him; with the productions of the immortal Pilgrim, who printed as many treatises as he had lived years in the world; of Philip Henry and his greater son, who had that peculiar faculty that has been called a holy naiveté ; of the honored historians of Dissent, Calamy, Neal, Brook, and Bogue; of the sweet singers of Israel, Watts, Doddridge, Sten

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Department of Books and Pamphlets.

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nett, and Charles Wesley; of those high-minded men, greater than philanthropists, who laid amid tears and prayers, the foundations of the London Missionary Society. Neither would we exclude the works of many generous laymen, who contended for their civil and religious rights, at the risk of being immured in the Fleet, or executed at Tyburn. We would reverently gather up all those free-spoken words which so excited the anger of the high commission courts and star-chambers of arbitrary monarchs and bigotted prelates. There were not a few pamphlets and small newspapers published clandestinely during the reign of the Stuarts, written with pens of fire, and which reveal the character of those times far more vividly than any formal history or biogra phy can do.

But the prominent place should be given to our own early Puritan literature. We would have it by eminence a New England library. We would hasten to gather up with pious zeal everything which was put into print by the courtly and learned Winthrops, by Norton, who had an "eminent acumen in polemical divinity," by the holy and tearful Shepard, by the humble and benevolent Wilson, by the sweet-tempered Mitchel, by the apostolic Eliot, by Hubbard the historian, by Prince the annalist, by the prolific author of the Magnalia, and by all who, through their works, illustrated the fortunes of the early colonists.

This library should, likewise, include the general histories of England and the United States, civil and ecclesiastical, the works of Clarendon, Burnet, Hume, Lingard, Hallam, Palgrave, Hutchinson, Grahame, etc.; also, as complete a collection as could be formed of the polemic literature relating to this subject, the controversial writings in which the 17th and 18th centuries were so prolific both in Old and New England, not only those called forth by the great struggle between the conformist and the non-conformist, but the "Apologies," "Defences," "Rejoinders," "Appeals," "Statements," etc. in which the various sects of Dissenters advocated or defended their peculiar tenets. The leading books and pamphlets at least in relation to these discussions should be procured. Some of them do not belong to the class of ephemeral literature. They embalm some of the noblest specimens which are to be found of sterling and honest thought expressed in vigorous English. Many of them are necessary to the adequate understanding of the works of the great Puritan divines and civilians which are not professedly controversial.

II.

IL Manuscripts. Some of these which might now be procu

red would be of inestimable value. Many others would be objects of great curiosity. Samuel Stone of Hartford left a "body of divinity" which was often transcribed but never printed. Willard, vice president of Harvard college, left important works in Mss. We may, also, mention the Mss. of Stoddard of Northampton, Hooker of Hartford, Eliot the Indian apostle, the historians Gookin, Hubbard, Prince, the voluminous papers of Cotton Mather, the interesting journals of judge Sewall, the Literary Diary of president Stiles, etc. It is well known, also, that it is still a matter of deliberation where the numerous Mss. of president Edwards shall be finally deposited. The owners of them would undoubtedly feel inclined to place them in a General Library such as the one proposed. Many precious papers, not now publicly known to exist, utterly neglected, mouldering in chests or in garrets, constantly exposed to destruction, would be rescued, and would reach the same safe destination.

In England, also, some Puritan Mss. might be procured even at this late day. An agent, stationed in London and commissioned to visit the places once honored by the eminent non-conformists, would be able to gather up some precious spoil. During the present year a large collection of the Mss. of Dr. Doddridge, containing letters to him from many distinguished individuals, were sold by auction at a very moderate price.

III. Portraits, prints, etc. Some of the original portraits of the non-conformist fathers in England might yet, possibly, be procurcd. In other cases prints, busts or engravings might supply their place. Some of the portraits of the old Puritans are of little worth. Those by Hollar, Marshall Faithorne, Vertue, and Robert White were probably faithful. Of the portraits of the New England fathers a much larger number might now be secured. Of many of the more distinguished individuals, several portraits on canvass are known to exist. The families of these venerated men not unfrequently become extinct in the direct line. In such cases it would not be difficult to purchase the portraits, perhaps Mss. and other valuable relics. Where they could not be procured by purchase or donation, they might be borrowed on an indefinite lease and placed in the Museum for safe keeping, as has been the case with some of the treasures of our Historical Societies. At all events it is practicable to collect a sufficient number to adorn some of the halls of the building devoted to this purpose. No spectacle could be more delightful to the genuine descend

Williams's Letters on Puritanism, 2d series, p. 109.

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Articles in the proposed Library.

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ants of the Pilgrims than a series of such portraits, time-worn and decayed though they might be. They would not reveal the inspirations of genius; they might not attract the votaries of the fine arts. But they would answer a nobler purpose. Their fading colors would teach a more impressive lesson. How interesting to see a chronological series, beginning with elder Brewster, Gov. Winthrop, John Robinson, John Harvard, John Davenport, Thomas Hooker, the Mathers, the Bulkleys, the Mayhews, the successive Puritan governors who were elected by the people, the authors of the two Platforms, the "venerable company of pastors" who gave their books as the foundation of Yale, the great men who labored in the revivals of religion in the middle and in the latter part of the eighteenth century, down to the patriarchs who have just finished their labors, the teachers of theology-the sage of Franklin, Wood, Shepard, Hyde, Dwight, and many others who were pillars in our churches. Even if but few of these pictured memorials of moral and intellectual worth could be assembled, how inestimable the treasure.

IV. Miscellaneous memorials, cherished articles employed in the studies and labors of distinguished men, characteristic remembrances, even should they be small, and in themselves of little value. At Eisleben are shown the cap, cloak, portrait and various relics of Luther; at Erfurt are his inkstand, table, Bible, portrait and other interesting reminiscences; in Halle is a pulpit in which he preached; in Wittenberg is his house or lodging in the old Augustinian convent, also his chair and table at which he wrote, the jug from which he drank, his stove made according to his own directions with peculiar devices, his professor's chair, two portraits of him by Cranach, and a cast of his face after death. In many other cities also various memorials may be found. Now if these relics, or the more interesting of them, could be collected at Wittenberg, the cradle of the reformation, and at the same time there could be deposited in that city those objects which are associated with the names of his distinguished co-laborers, what a spot it would be for the refreshment of the spirit! Other places would still retain permanent memorials of Luther. The Wartburg and the cell at Erfurt would still attract the traveller. Yet one place would be the central point of interest. This he would see if he were compelled to pass by all the others.

So at some central point in New England, touching mementos of the great men, who have adorned her religious history, might be collected. Nothing at Abbotsford is so impressive as the hat, VOL. IV. No. 15.

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staff and coat of the border minstrel precisely in the state in which he last used them. We are creatures of association. We should feel a deeper interest in the doctrines preached by the fathers of New England, if we had visible and tangible memorials of their existence and labors.

The following reasons may be stated for the establishment of such a Library and Museum as we have indicated:

I. It would form a centre of patriotic and religious reminiscence for New England and for all the descendants of the Pilgrimsthe shrine to which those who revere the memory of the great and the good and the learned of past ages might repair. In the university library of Bâle we seem to be in the very presence of Erasmus, Euler, Oecolampadius, the Bernouillis and Holbeins. In Zürich, the portraits, Mss., and relics of Zuingli and other reformers are the cherished treasures. The public library at Geneva preserves the portrait, the published works, the Mss. letters and other remains of Calvin, though the place of his sepulchre is unknown. In these three libraries, the true Protestants of the three cantons have objects of deep and common interest. Their feelings of affection and veneration are garnered up in the old halls which still seem to be vocal with the stern and solemn voices of the sixteenth century. Similar would be the emotions which would be felt as we should gather around the place where the literary and theological remains of the founders of the New England churches and their descendants might be deposited. may learn the effect of such an exhibition from the reverence which is now felt for the comparatively few and imperfect memorials which exist at Plymouth, Hartford, and other towns. It would unite in no common bonds all the children of the Pilgrims in their widest dispersions.

II. Such a Library would constitute an interesting memorial of the theological and literary labors of the Puritans. It would be a standing proof of the groundlessness of the charges which have been sometimes made against them as if they would dissociate piety from human learning. It would be a monument of the debt which the friends of knowledge and of civil liberty owe to them. Who could undervalue the English Dissenters, when he should see on the shelves of a library, as the product of their pens, The Paradise Lost, The Pilgrim's Progress, The Saint's Everlasting Rest, The Blessedness of the Righteous, The Credibility of the Gospel History, The Cyclopaedia of Rees, The Hymns and Divine Songs of Watts, The Exposition and the

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