sultant loss of freedom intellectually,
politically, and economically, along with
inflexibility of institutions would deprive
America of the ingredients of its great-
ness. What answer may be drawn from
the analogy with the Puritan oligarchy?
Was the strict control and discipline of
the Puritan colony justified in the need
to provide conditions in which the colo-
nists could establish themselves securely
in the New World, with their political
institutions, their economic order, and
the broad cultural patterns they were at-
tempting to transplant from the Old
World? Or was there a stifling of free,
creative forces which delayed the very
processes of growth and development
which were necessary to healthy exist-
ence? Was the colony subjected to a
kind of dry rot which later generations
had to struggle to overcome? Let the
reader decide.

[NOTE: The statement by C. S. Lewis on p. xii
is quoted from The Screwtape Letters ( New
York, 1948), p. 55, and is used with permission
of The Macmillan Company.]

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