Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/74

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§ 52. may now advert in a brief manner to the history of the Northern, or Plymouth Company. That company possessed fewer resources and less enterprise than the Southern; and though aided by men of high distinction, and among others by the public spirit and zeal of Lord Chief Justice Popham, its first efforts for colonization were feeble and discouraging. Capt. John Smith, so well known in the History of Virginia by his successful adventures under their authority, lent a transient lustre to their attempts; and his warm descriptions of the beauty and fertility of the country procured for it from the excited imagination of the Prince, after King Charles the First, the flattering name of New-England, a name, which effaced from it that of Virginia, and which has since become dear beyond expression to the inhabitants of its harsh but salubrious climate.

§ 53. While the company was yet languishing, an event occurred, which gave a new and unexpected aspect to its prospects. It is well known, that the religious dissensions consequent upon the reformation, while they led to a more bold and free spirit of discussion, failed at the same time of introducing a correspondent charity for differences of religious opinion. Each successive sect entertained not the slightest doubt of its