to apply the name to the men who founded Plymouth, it being considered as applying solely to those who founded Massachusetts. It may be true that “the Separatists were not Puritans in the original sense of the word”;[151] but the word did not retain its original sense, and although Separatist and Nonconformist represent a real difference, the word Puritan may well be used to cover both. The pendulum, indeed, seems now to be swinging the other way, and several writers describe Puritanism broadly as an “attitude of mind,” or as “idealism applied to the solution of contemporary problems.”[152] As specific terms for the many sects and minor currents in the great movement, which for a time dominated the history of both the Englands, are by no means lacking, it would seem desirable to retain the use of the word Puritanism in its widest application, and it is so used in the present work. Footnote 150: C. Burrage, _The Early English Dissenters in the Light of Recent Research, 1550-1641_ (Cambridge, 1912), vol. I, pp. 84, 93. Hinds, in _The England of Elizabeth_, p. 19, traces “the first whisper of that sound” to Calvin's letter of 1554. Footnote 151: Burrage, _English Dissenters_, vol. I, p. 34. _Cf._ E. Channing, _History of the United States_ (New York, 1916), vol. I, p. 272 _n._ Footnote 152: Channing, _History_, vol. I, pp. 271 _ff._; G. B. Tatham, _The Puritans in Power_ (Cambridge, 1913), p. 2; and R. G. Usher, _The Reconstruction of the English Church_ (New York, 1910), vol. I, pp. 244-46. The idea of unity seems to possess a peculiar fascination for the average human mind. Only a savage or a philosopher may be content with, or rise to, the conception of a pluralistic universe. Moreover, the desire to conform, and to force others to do so, is as typical of the average man as of the average boy.