Some Phases of Sexual Morality and Church Discipline in Colonial New England

That the earlier generations of Massachusetts were either more law abiding or more self restrained than the later is a proposition which accords neither with tradition nor with the reason of things. The habits of those days were simpler than those of the present they were also essentially grosser. The community was small and it hardly needs to be said that where the eyes of all are upon each the general scrutiny is a safeguard to morals. It is in cities, not in villages, that laxity is to be looked for. But now and again especially in the relations between the sexes we get glimpses of incidents in the dim past which are as dark as they are suggestive.