"Pondering the solemn miracle of life As one who, wandering in a starless night, Feels momently the jar of unseen waves, And hears the thunder of an unknown sea Breaking along an unimagined shore. And as he walked he prayed." The weary victims of this senseless persecution looked to New England for refuge. The pilgrims wrote to their friends at home; and every letter was read with interest. They had hardships to tell of at first; then they had prosperity and comfort; always they had liberty! Every Summer a few ships were freighted for the settlements. At one time eight ships lay in the Thames, with their passengers on board, when the order was issued, that no one should leave without the king's permission. The soldiers cleared the ships, and the poor emigrants were driven back in despair to endure the miseries from which they were so eager to escape. Among these were Hampden and Cromwell. Well would it have been for the {134} king if he had let them go! But God had a work for them to do. They were to be the instruments in His hand "To hurl down wrong from its high seat, To the poor and oppressed, firm friends and true." The details of the long war between the king and the people we need not here relate. The result was the death of the unhappy monarch, and another step forward by the British people in the principles of self-government. Meanwhile the settlements in America continued to flourish. The virgin soil yielded abundant harvests. From the fleece of their sheep, and the flax of their fields they made a supply of clothing. They felled the timber of their boundless forests, and built ships and sent away to foreign countries, the timber, the fish and the furs which were not required at home. They were a noble people who had thus begun to strike their roots in the great forests of the west. Their peculiarities may indeed amuse us; as for example the strange names they gave their children. Many of the boys bore names in memory of some fortunate circumstance, or historical event, as "Rejoice in the Lord," "Pillar of Fire," "Strength of Israel," "Praise God Barebones," etc.; while the girls rejoiced in such names as "Truth," "Temperance," "Patience," "Chastity," and "Love the Lord."