198 THE CRATER; and rendered them what they were now fast becoming scenes of the most exquisite rural beauty, as well as gra naries of abundance. By this time, the palm-tree covered more or less of every island; and the orange, lime, shad dock and other similar plants, filled the air with the fra grance of their flowers, or rendered it bright with the golden hues of their fruits. In short, everything adapted to the climate was flourishing in the plantations, and plenty reigned even in the humblest dwelling. This was a perilous condition for the healthful humility of human beings. Two dangers beset them ; both co loured and magnified by a common tendency. One was that of dropping into luxurious idleness the certain pre cursor, in such a climate, of sensual indulgences; and the other was that of " waxing fat, and kicking." The ten dency common to both, was to place self before God, and not only to believe that they merited all they received, but that they actually created a good share of it. Of luxurious idleness, it was perhaps too soon to dread its worst fruits. The men and women retained too many of their early habits and impressions to drop easily into such a chasm; on the contrary, they rather looked forward to producing results greater than arry^ which had yet at tended their exertions. An exaggerated view of self, how ever, a.nd an almost total forgetfulness of God, took the place of the colonial humility with which they had com menced their career in this new region. These feelings were greatly heightened by three agents, that men ordina rily suppose might have a very different effect religion, law, and the press. When the Rancocus returned, a few months after the repulse of the pirates, she had on board of her some fifty emigrants; the council still finding itself obliged to admit the friends of families already settled in the colony, on due application. Unhappily, among these emigrants were a printer, a lawyer, and no less than four persons who might be termed divines. Of the last, one was a presbyterian, one a inethodist, the third was a baptist, and the fourth a quaker. Not long after the arrival of this importation, its consequences became visible. The sectaries commenced with a thousand professions of brotherly love, and a great
