John Winthrop First Governor of the Masschusetts Colony

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THE COMING MAN 17
Still, as he sees looking back, the vice of selfesteem
infested him. But better things were near.
At eighteen, "being a man in stature and under-
standing, and lately married," he underwent, not
without turmoil, the crisis of conversion.
" Now came I to some peace and comfort in God and
in his : wayes my chief delight was therein. I loved a
Christian, and the very ground hee went upon. I honoured
a faithful minister in my heart, and could have kissed his
feet. Now I grew full of zeal (which outranne my knowl-
edge, and carried mee sometimes beyond my calling),
and very liberall to any good work. I had_anjaasatiable thirst after the word of God and ; could not misse a good
sermon, though many miles off, especially of such as did
search deep into the conscience."
It is at this point that the earlier " Experiencia "
takes up the story, starting off thus : —
"Worldly cares thoughe not in any grosse manner out-
wardly, yet seacreatly, togither w lh a seacret desire after
plesures & itchinge after libertie & unlawfull delightes,
had brought me to waxe wearie of good duties and so
to forsake my first love, whence came muche troble &
danger."
Which represents in a general way the theme of
the whole, as in its enlargement it extends over the
space of the score of years covered by
much to say of his carnal proclivities, temptations,
it. He has
downfalls ; but when he comes to specify his trans-
gressions, beyond such faults as pride, unthankfulness,
vanity of mind, love of this world, he alleges nothing
against himself more serious in the concrete than fits
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