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Lowell, James Russell, 1819-1891

"Among My Books First Series"

I saw him presenting it to the
Protectour of late. The Episcopall men ply the Common-Prayer booke with
much more boldness then ever since these turnes of things, even in the
open face of the City in severall places. I have spoken of it to the
Protectour but as yet nothing is done in order to their being
suppressed." It should teach us to distrust the apparent size of objects,
which is a mere cheat of their nearness to us, that we are so often
reminded of how small account things seem to one generation for which
another was ready to die. A copy of the _Jus Divinum_ held too close to
the eyes could shut out the universe with its infinite chances and
changes, its splendid indifference to our ephemeral fates. Cromwell, we
should gather, had found out the secret of this historical perspective,
to distinguish between the blaze of a burning tar-barrel and the final
conflagration of all things. He had learned tolerance by the possession
of power,--a proof of his capacity for rule. In 1652 Haynes writes: "Ther
was a Catechise lately in print ther, that denied the divinity of Christ,
yett ther was motions in the house by some, to have it lycenced by
authority. Cromwell mainly oposed, & at last it was voted to bee burnt
which causes much discontent of somme.


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