with a superior share of human learning." None of Winthrop's letters to his first wife have been preserved; and there is only one short note to her "sweet husband" among the family papers. It is of little importance, and throws no light on a character of which every reader would be glad to know more.

Six months after the death of his wife, Winthrop married again. His second wife was Thomasine, the daughter of William Clopton, Esq., of Castleins, near Groton, a representative of one of the oldest and most respectable families in England. She appears to have been a person of much worth of character, of deep religious convictions, and of a tender and affectionate nature; and her husband may well have looked forward to many years of domestic happiness. But his second experience of married life was suddenly terminated by her death, in a little more than a year after their marriage. A curious and instructive account of her sickness, drawn up by her husband at the time, has been preserved among the family papers, and is printed for the first time in the "Life and Letters." In it, as Winthrop's biographer remarks, "the hopes and fears, the prayers and watchings, the wandering thoughts and delirious fancies, the temptations of the enemy,' the parting words, the passing bell, the last sighs and tears, are all recounted with a pathos and a vividness which almost make us witnesses of the scene and partakers of the sorrow." The whole narrative affords new and striking evidence of the strength and tenderness of Winthrop's nature; but it is too long for quotation in full, and it would be impossible by any extracts to give a just idea of its singular beauty. The closing passage, however, in which the writer briefly delineates his wife's character, may be separated from the rest of the account, and is without doubt a just tribute to her memory.

"She was a woman wise, modest, lovinge, & patient of iniuries; but hir innocent & harmeles life was of most observation. She was truly religious, & industrious therein; plaine hearted, & free from guile, & very humble minded; never so adicted to any outward thinges (to my iudgm) but that she could bringe hir affections to stoope to Gods will in them. She was sparinge in outward shewe of zeale, etc. but hir constant love to good christians, & the best things, wth hir reverent & carefull attendance of Gods ordinances, bothe publiqe & private, with hir

care for avoydinge of evill hirselfe, & reprovinge it in others, did plainly shewe that truthe, & the love of God, did lye at the heart. Hir lovinge & tender regard of my children was suche as might well become a naturall mother: ffor hir carriage towards myselfe, it was so amiable & observant as I am not able to expresse; it had this onely inconvenience, that it made me delight too muche in hir to enjoye hir longe."

Covering nearly the whole of this portion of his life, and extending over many pages of the "Life and Letters," we have a minute and deeply interesting account of his religious experience, now printed for the first time. Unlike the "Christian Experience" already referred to, which was not written until several years after his arrival at Boston, this record is in the form of a journal, and gives an exact description of the writer's feelings at the very period when each part was written. It begins on the 2d of February, 1606, — only ten days before the birth of his eldest son, and comes down, with but few interruptions, to April, 1620; and there are some entries of a later date. Many passages are characterized by that eloquence and fervor which we find in the best religious writings of the seventeenth century; and throughout it breathes the spirit of sincere and earnest piety. Sometimes, indeed, the writer describes himself, in the language of that age, as utterly base and fallen; but not seldom we have glowing pictures of the peace and joy experienced only through communion with God. As a history of his inner life during the period in which character is forming and principles are becoming fixed, it possesses an especial value; and no one can read it without recognizing its importance as an autobiographical fragment. In reading it, we are more than ever before impressed by Winthrop's peculiar qualifications for the important duty afterward assigned to him; and even in the most cursory examination, it will be seen how largely his subsequent life was affected by his early religious struggles and aspirations. In one passage, probably written not long after the death of his second wife, he describes the consolations which he derived from prayer and religious reading after that sad event, so that "I founde in one fortnight such an abundant recompense of my losse, as I might saye wth the prophet, O Lord! thou hast caused my ioye to surmount my griefe an

100 foulde." In another passage, written at a little later period, he speaks of his frequent conflicts with the world and the flesh, and triumphantly adds: "Come life, come deathe; come healthe, come sicknesse; come good reporte or evill reporte; come ioye, come sorrowe; come wealthe, come povertie; come what may, I will never yield me a prisoner to these enemies, I will never be reconciled unto them, I will never seeke their wealthe nor prosperitie all the dayes of my life; for I knowe that if I enter friendship wth them, they will cause me to eate of their sacrifices, & so wthdrawe my hearte from my God to runne roaminge after them & to committ Idolatrye wth them." And in another and still more noticeable passage, he records that, "havinge been longe wearied wth discontent for want of suche imployment as I could find comfort & peace in, I founde at last that the conscionable & constant teachinge of my familye was a speciall businesse, wherein I might please God, & greatly further their & mine own salvation, weh might be as sufficient incouragement to my studye & labour therein as if I were to teache a publick Congregation; for as to the pleasing of God it was all one, & I perceived that my exercise therein did stirre up in me many considerations & much life of affection, wch otherwise I should not so often meet wth; so as I purpose, by Gods assistance, to take it as a chiefe parte of my callinge, & to intende it accordingly." On one occasion, while "lookinge over some lettres of kindnesse that had passed between my first wife & me, & beinge thereby affected wth the remembrance of that entire & sweet love that had been sometymes between us," he is led to meditate on the love between Christ and his own soul; and on several other occasions we find him writing in a similar strain. The simplest acts of his daily life, as well as the painful experiences of sickness and sorrow, turned his thoughts toward the unseen world. Still it was only through a various experience of fear and hope, of depression and triumphant confidence, of trembling doubt and assured faith, that he ultimately attained inward peace. As he somewhere writes in this journal, "Sometymes my faithe hathe been so deadhearted in the promises as no meanes could quicken me up to apprehende the mercies of God, although but in the ordinarye sence of

my siñes. At an other tyme againe God hathe lett in upon my heart suche a floud of mercie as in the quickest sight of sinne that ever I had I could not have been brought to make question of pardon." But at all times, when he was struggling with painful doubts as well as when he was rejoicing in hope, we see how deep was his sense of religious obligations, and how earnestly he was striving to bring his outward life into harmony with his own settled convictions of duty. It is seldom that we have so minute a record of any man's spiritual conflicts; and there are probably few persons whose inmost thoughts and aspirations could be thus exposed to the cold eye of criticism without sinking them somewhat in the general estimation. In the case of Winthrop the result will be different; and these revelations, evidently meant for no eye but his own, will add new honor to his memory by the light which they throw on his life and character.

Meanwhile, in the early part of 1618, Winthrop again married, his third wife being Margaret, daughter of Sir John Tyndal, Knight, of Great Maplested, in the county of Essex. Of this lady much more is known than, of either of his other wives; and many of her husband's letters to her, as well as some of her answers, have been preserved. Some of them have been already printed in the Appendix to Mr. Savage's edition of "The History of New England," and others are now given to the public for the first time. They are among the best specimens of epistolary composition in our language, and present a charming picture of domestic peace and joy. Few marriages can have produced greater happiness to both parties than was experienced by Winthrop and his wife during the next twenty-five or thirty years; but the new alliance was not contracted without serious opposition on the part of the bride's family and friends. Two letters addressed to her by her future husband before their marriage have recently come to light, in the first of which he urges his suit with great warmth, and combats the objections apparently urged against him on the ground of the smallness of his fortune. In the course of the letter, which is very long, and largely occupied with references to the Scriptures, he writes somewhat quaintly with regard to her acceptance of him in spite of the opposition of her friends.

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"But nowe doe I knowe that thou lovest me, & heerby we may be fully assured that this thinge comethe of the Lorde: Therefore it is my desire to confirme thy heart in this resolutio; not that I feare any change (farre be suche a thought from me) but for that I wishe thee a large additiō of comfort to thy constancie, wch may molifie & heale up the scarres of such wounds as may yet remaine of thy late conflicte. And now I will take libtie to deale freely wth thee since there is no need of persuasiō, nor any feare of suspitiō of flaterye; & let me tell thee that as thou hast doone worthyly & Christianly, so thou hast doone no otherwise than became thee being one professinge to feare God & beleeve in him for (what so ever I am or may be, yet) beinge, in thy accompt, a servant of God & one that thou mightest well hope to be furthered to heaven by (Amen I say), & beinge offred unto thee by God, & thy selfe beinge as warrantably called to embrace the opportunitye as a woman might be, I see not how thou couldst have had peace to thine owne heart if thou hadst refused it; but thou mightest iustly have feared least, for whdrawinge thy heart from God & leaninge to thine owne reason, he should have given thee over to some suche matche as should have proved a plauge to thy soule all thy dayes."

And he closes by bidding her to be patient and hopeful.

"Whatsoever shall be wantinge of that wch thy love deserves, my kindest affection shall endeavour to supplie, whilst I live, & what I leave unsatisfied (as I never hope to be out of thy debt) I will sett over to Him who is able, & will recompence thee to the full : & for the present, I wish thee to followe the prophets exhortatio Psal: 27. 14. Waite on the Lord, be of good courage, & he shall strengthen thyne heart; Waite I say on the Lorde."

In the second letter he offers some suggestions as to her bridal apparel, which, one would think, could scarcely have been acceptable to her, and which probably would not be very pleasing to most ladies at the present day. But, as his biographer justly observes, "the Scriptural allusions and applications which are introduced so abundantly into this letter are still more remarkable." They are even more frequent here than in any of his other letters, and they show at once the writer's familiarity with the Bible, and the smallness of the distinction then made as to the canonical value of its different books, since most of its references are to the "Song of Solomon." This singular production appears to have been a favorite with Winthrop, and he often quotes from it, but nowhere else so copiously as in this letter.