George Peabody at Danvers, if I recollect, while that
gentleman was so elaborately concealing from his left hand what his right
had been doing. As examples of Captain Underhill's adroitness in phonetic
spelling, I offer _fafarabel_ and _poseschonse_, and reluctantly leave
him.
Another very entertaining fellow for those who are willing to work
through a pretty thick husk of tiresomeness for a genuine kernel of humor
underneath is Coddington. The elder Winthrop endured many trials, but I
doubt if any were sharper than those which his son had to undergo in the
correspondence of this excellently tiresome man. _Tantae molis Romanam
condere gentem!_ The dulness of Coddington, always that of no ordinary
man, became irritable and aggressive after being stung by the gadfly of
Quakerism. Running counter to its proper nature, it made him morbidly
uneasy. Already an Anabaptist, his brain does not seem to have been large
enough to lodge two maggots at once with any comfort to himself. Fancy
John Winthrop, Jr., with all the affairs of the Connecticut Colony on his
back, expected to prescribe alike for the spiritual and bodily ailments
of all the hypochondriacs in his government, and with Philip's war
impending,--fancy him exposed also to perpetual trials like this: "G.
Pages:
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401