" Thus another new state was founded,
and in Rhode Island there was more real freedom than in almost any
other colony in New England.
Massachusetts was at this time, as we can see, not exactly an
easy place to live in for any one whose opinions differed in the
slightest from those laid down by law. Those same people who had
left their homes to seek freedom of conscience denied it to others.
But they were so very, very sure that their way was the only
right way, that they could not understand how any one could think
otherwise. They were good and honest men. And if they were severe
with their fellows who strayed from the narrow path, it was only
in the hope that by punishing them in this life, they might save
them from much more terrible punishment in the life to come.
__________
Chapter 26 - The Founding of Harvard
One very good thing we have to remember about the first settlers of
Massachusetts is that early in the life of the colony they founded
schools and colleges. A good many of the settlers were Oxford and
Cambridge men, though more indeed came from Cambridge than from
Oxford, as Cambridge was much the more Puritan of the two. But
whether from Oxford or from Cambridge they were eager that their
children born in this New England should have as good an education
as their fathers had had in Old England.
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