We are the thralls of our railroads and
hotels, and we deserve it.
Richard Saltonstall writes to John Winthrop, Jr., in 1636: "The best
thing that I have to beg your thoughts for at this present is a motto or
two that Mr. Prynne hath writ upon his chamber walls in the Tower." We
copy a few phrases, chiefly for the contrast they make with Lovelace's
famous verses to Althea. Nothing could mark more sharply the different
habits of mind in Puritan and Cavalier. Lovelace is very charming, but he
sings
"The sweetness, mercy, majesty,
And glories of _his_ King,"
to wit, Charles I. To him "stone walls do not a prison make," so long as
he has "freedom in his love, and in his soul is free." Prynne's King was
of another and higher kind: "_Carcer excludit mundum, includit Deum. Deus
est turris etiam in turre: turris libertatis in turre angustiae: Turris
quietis in turre molestice.... Arctari non potest qui in ipsa Dei
infinitate incarceratus spatiatur.... Nil crus sentit in nervo si animus
sit in coelo: nil corpus patitur in ergastulo, si anima sit in Christo_."
If Lovelace has the advantage in fancy, Prynne has it as clearly in depth
of sentiment. There could be little doubt which of the parties
represented by these men would have the better if it came to a
death-grapple.
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