HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND FROM THE REVOLUTION OF THE SEVENTEENTH BY JOHN GORHAM PALFREY. Moribus antiquis res stat Romana virisque. -ENNIUS, apud Cic. de Rep. V. 1. BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by JOHN GORHAM PALFREY, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son. ΤΟ CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, EMINENT AMONG THOSE SONS OF NEW ENGLAND BY WHOM SHE IS "A NAME AND A PRAISE AMONG ALL PEOPLE OF THE EARTH," THIS TREATISE IS INSCRIBED. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH VOLUME. I HAD just made arrangements for putting into type a continuation of my History of New England, intending, as the work proceeded, to make additions to the text as it had been composed, and to adjust and amplify the body of notes of which I had a rough draught, when, in November, 1873, I was arrested by illness. When I regained some strength, the question occurred, whether I should attempt a prosecution of my plan under the disadvantages which would attend it. Should I do so, I must expect to fall short of the ideal which I had proposed to myself, and be content to produce what would not bear a rigorous criticism. But I decided that these considerations should not deter me, because materials which I had been long collecting, and which remained in a state unfit for any use but my own, would then be lost. As long as I should be able to apply myself to the task, I might hope to be putting into shape what would serve the convenience of future students, however it might be found to fail in completeness and even in accuracy. The history of New England is considered to be dry and unpicturesque. But by peculiar titles it deserves, beyond the records of dynastic intrigues and wars, to be known to the philosophical student of man and society, of divine Providence, and of the progress of the race. In more stirring narratives one may read of the conflicts of furious human passions, of the baseness |