Inventing Eden : Primitivism, Millennialism, and the Making of New England

Previous scholars have noted the Puritans' edenic descriptions of New World landscapes, but Inventing Eden is the first study to fully uncover the integral relationship between the New England interest in paradise and the numerous iconic intellectual artifacts and social movements of colonial North America. Harvard Yard, the Bay Psalm Book, and the Quaker use of antiquated pronouns like thee and thou: these are products of a seventeenth-century desire for Eden. So, too, are the evangelical emphasis of the Great Awakening, the doctrine of natural law popularized by the Declaration of Independence, and the first United States judicial decision abolishing slavery. Be it public nudity or Freemasonry, Zachary Hutchins convincingly shows how a shared wish to bring paradise into the pragmatic details of colonial living had a profound effect on early New England life and its substantial culture of letters. Spanning two centuries and surveying the works of major British and American thinkers from James Harrington and John Milton to Anne Hutchinson and Benjamin Franklin, Inventing Eden is the history of an idea that irrevocably altered the theology, literature, and culture of colonial New England -- and, eventually, the new republic.--Amazon.com Cover 1 Inventing Eden: Primitivism, Millennialism, and the Making of New England 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Inventing Eden 12 Introduction Eden and Intellectual History 14 1. Paradise Explained an Edenic Primer 23 Eden in America: From Columbus to the Bay Colony 24 RECONCILING BOZEMAN AND BERCOVITCH 25 THE ORIGINS OF ENGLISH ESCHATOLOGY AND EDENIC THOUGHT 29 The Limits and Labor of Eden: Separating the Ideal from the Idyllic 32 PARADISE 35 ARCADIA 36 PERFECT MORAL COMMONWEALTH 38 UTOPIA 39 EDEN 39 Invention: Discovery, Interpretation, and Innovation 41 2. Promoting Paradise, Or dering Wilderness: TOPOGRAPHICAL OPTIMISM MEETS AGRICULTURAL REALITY 46 Discovering Paradise: “The More I Looked, the More I Liked It” 48 THE POPULATION OF EDEN 52 LABOR AND ITS REWARDS 53 NEW ENGLAND’S TEMPERATE CLIMATE 59 THE FLORA AND FAUNA OF NEW ENGLAND 62 Cultivating Wilderness: Importing English Order and Invention 64 DEBUNKING THE DEMONIC WILDERNESS 66 A WILDERNESS “SPATIOUS AND VOID” 67 ENGLISH INVENTIONS IN THE WILDERNESS 69 ENGLISH ORDERING, ENGLISH EDEN 72 Confronting Failure: The Inward Turn 75 3. A Body Unembarrassed: HUMORAL EMPOWERMENT AND EDENIC TEMPERANCE 79 Other-Fashioning: The Limits of Humoral Empowerment 84 Engendering Edenic Temperance: The Sexing of Medicine 86 A SELF-MADE WOMAN 89 PHLEGMATIC, ERGO EDENIC, PHYSIOLOGIES 91 MINISTERIAL MEDICINE 94 DIABOLICAL DISTEMPERS 96 Embarrassed By Sin: Humoral Correctives for Ecclesiastical Intemperance 98 A MODEL OF EDENIC TEMPERANCE 100 NAKEDNESS AND “NOYSOME” DISEASES 103 SACRAMENTAL VOMIT 109 Eating Their Way to Eden 114 4. Building Bensalem at Massachusetts Bay: THE SEARCH FOR SOLOMON’S ADAMIC WISDOM 117 Bacon’s Great Instauration: A Guide to Intellectual Regeneration 117 New England as New Atlantis: John Cotton’s Epistemological Mandate 121 INHERITING SALOMON’S HOUSE 122 THE WISDOM OF ESTABLISHING COLONIES 123 The Aims of a College: Harvard’s Place in a Paradisiacal Tradition 125 THE MONASTIC AND PARISIAN TRADITIONS 126 THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF INDUCTION 129 The Wisdom of Anne Bradstreet: Imitating Elizabeth, Outdoing Solomon 132 THE GENDER OF WISDOM 133 BRADSTREET AND THE CRITICS 134 BRADSTREET’S BLOODY EVE 135 REPLACING EVE WITH ELIZABETH 137 ASSUMING SOLOMON’S MANTLE 138 “WISDOM ’TIS MY WISDOME TO CONCEAL” 139 An Edenic Enlightenment: The Science of Mather and Edwards 142 5. Translating Paradise: HEBREW, HERBERT, MILTON, FOX, AND THE PURSUIT OF LINGUISTIC PURITY 146 A Haven for Hebrew: Eber’s Journey from Eden to New England 147 Navigating The Temple : Two Paths Back to Paradisiacal Purity 151 FROM DUST TO REST 153 PARADISIACAL PRUNING 155 “In the Beginning Was the Word”: The Plain Languageof the Bay Psalm Book 158 A HERBERTIAN HERITAGE 159 THE PLAIN STYLE OF PRIMERS AND PSALM BOOKS 163 DESCRIBING THE PURITAN PLAIN STYLE LEXICALLY 166 A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THREE PSALTERS 167 THE BAY PSALM BOOK’S HEBRAISMS 171 “Make my Leaden Whittle, Metall Good”: Edward Taylor and the Alchemy of Eden 173 THE POLISHED STONES OF TAYLOR’S TEMPLE 174 “THIS SACRED ADAMICK STONE” 176 Paradise Lost, Paradise Regain’d: The Eighteenth-Century Move to Milton 179 A Quaker Coda: Singular and Plural Language in New England 183 THE ENTRANCE INTO LEARNING 184 THEE AND THOU IN NEW ENGLAND 186 6. From Pilgrimage to New Birth, Adam to Eve: THE EVOLUTION OF EDENIC MODELS FOR CONVERSION 189 Renewing the Image of God: Aspirations to Adamic Innocence 189 THE FIRST ADAM OR THE SECOND? 190 BECOMING A FRUITFUL FIELD 191 FALLING FORWARD 192 A Journey Back to God: Conversion as Pilgrimage 194 OVERCOMING A DISABILITY OF GENDER 195 THE POPULAR PATHWAY TO HEAVEN 197 “INNOCENT WALKING” 199 First Stirrings: Preparing for the New Birth in New England 200 THE SOUL OF BREVITY, OR ABBREVIATED SOULS 201 CONTRITE TEARS, SANCTIFIED SEMEN 207 Labor and Delivery: Edwards, Eve, and the New Birth 211 THE CONVERSION OF JONATHAN EDWARDS 213 CHILDBIRTH AND THE CONVERSION OF EVE 214 Afterbirth: Eve’s Impact on Edwards and the Awakenings 216 7. Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Eden: THE ARCHITECTS, SLAVE LABORERS, AND MASTER MASONS OF FREEDOM’S TEMPLE 220 Declaring Eden: Jefferson, Grotius, and the Natural Law Tradition 221 GROTIUS AND GENESIS 222 OTHER ENGLISH AND EUROPEAN INFLUENCES ON NATURAL LAW 225 NATURAL LAW IN COLONIAL NEW ENGLAND 228 “Eden Blooms Again”? Natural Law and the Rhetoric of Slavery 233 “YOUR PETITIONERS APPREHEND . . .” 235 “CONTRARY TO THE LAW OF NATURE” 237 The Crafting of Eden: Freemasons, Right Reason, and Republican Government 241 RIGHT REASON AND THE REPUBLIC OF OCEANA 244 THE MASONRY OF FREEDOM’S TEMPLE 247 SECOND ADAM AND GRAND MASTER 250 Epilogue: THE EDENIC INHERITANCE 256 NOTES 264 Introduction 264 Chapter 1 265 Chapter 2 272 Chapter 3 280 Chapter 4 290 Chapter 5 300 Chapter 6 311 Chapter 7 319 Epilogue 330 INDEX 334 'inventing Eden' Charts The Ways In Which Colonial New England Writers Replaced Their Initial Topographical Optimism With An Interest In Recovering The Somatic, Intellectual, Spiritual, And Social Perfections That Adam And Eve Enjoyed In The Biblical Garden. As They Appropriated And Adapted Old World Beliefs About The Primitive Eden And A Coming Millennial Paradise To Their New World Surroundings Over The First Two Centuries Of European Colonisation In New England, Puritans And Quakers Disciplined Their Physical And Figurative Bodies In An Effort To Reclaim A Prelapsarian Physiological Temperance. Paradise Explained : An Edenic Primer -- Promoting Paradise, Ordering Wilderness: Topographical Dreams And Agricultural Realities In Colonial New England -- A Body Unembarrassed : Humoral Empowerment And Edenic Temperance -- Building Bensalem At Massachusetts Bay : The Search For Solomon's Wisdom -- Translating Paradise : Hebrew, Herbert, Fox, And The Pursuit Of Linguistic Purity -- From Pilgrimage To New Birth, Adam To Eve : The Evolution Of Edenic Models For Conversion -- Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Eden : The Architects, Slave Laborers, And Master Masons Of Freedom's Temple. Zachary Mcleod Hutchins. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Surveying English and colonial thinkers from William Shakespeare and John Milton to Anne Hutchinson and Benjamin Franklin, Inventing Eden tells how a belief in Eden shaped American literature, history, and culture.