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But they were at work on foundations. They builded better than they knew,—perhaps better in many cases than they intended,—for we may believe that God overrules the unwisdom of the sincere and honest worker and evolves therefrom something far better than he dared to hope for. They planted industry and personal responsibility and the fear of God; they watered the tiny plants with sweat and tears; and there have grown up and spread, till they overshadow a nation of seventy millions, civil and religious liberty and universal education. At the town meeting the most frequent matters for consideration were the preacher and the meeting-house. The meeting-house, by the way, was literally the meeting-house where all matters secular as well as spiritual were discussed and settled. When every citizen was a member of the church, and no other person was thought fit to vote, and when spiritual and secular affairs were all one, this seemed the proper thing to do. The first entry in our records concerning schools was on July 20, 1719, when the town voted to hire some meet person to keep a writing school in the town for three or four months in the winter season, and a committee of seven men, consisting of Captain Tufts, Capt. Ebenezer Brooks, Lieut. Stephen Hall, Engn Stephen Francis, Mr. Jno. Willis, Dea. Whitmore, and
Medford, MA. 1898.
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