And yet the men of civil eminence, who came immediately behind the military escort, were better worth a thoughtful observer's eye. Even in outward demeanour, they showed a stamp of majesty that made the warrior's haughty stride look vulgar, if not absurd. It was an age when what we call talent had far less consideration than now, but the massive materials which produce stability and dignity of character a great deal more. The people possessed, by hereditary right, the quality of reverence; which, in their descendants, if it survive at all, exists in smaller proportion, and with a vastly diminished force, in the selection and estimate of public men. The change may be for good or ill, and is partly, perhaps, for both. In that old day, the English settler on these rude shores- having left king, nobles, and all degrees of awful rank behind, while still the faculty and necessity of reverence were strong in him- bestowed it on the white hair and venerable brow of age; on long-tried integrity; on solid wisdom and sad-coloured experience; on endowments of that grave and weighty order which gives the idea of permanence, and comes under the general definition of respectability. These primitive statesmen, therefore- Bradstreet, Endicott, Dudley, Bellingham, and their compeers- who were elevated to power by the early choice of the people, seem to have been not often brilliant, but distinguished by a ponderous sobriety, rather than activity of intellect. They had fortitude and self-reliance, and, in time of difficulty or peril, stood up for the welfare of the state like a line of cliffs against a tempestuous tide. The traits of character here indicated were well represented in the square cast of countenance and large physical development of the new colonial magistrates. So far as a demeanour of natural authority was concerned, the mother country need not have been ashamed to see these foremost men of an actual democracy adopted into the House of Peers, or made the Privy Council of the sovereign.
而紧随卫队而来的文职官员们，却更值得有头脑的旁观者瞩目。单从举止外貌来说，那种庄严神气，就使那群高视阔步的武夫们即使没有显得怪模怪样，也是俗不可耐了。那个时代，我们所说的天才远没有今天这样备受重视，但形成坚定与尊严的人格的多方面的因素却要大受青睐。人们通过世袭权而拥有的受人尊敬的缘由，在其后裔身上，即使仍能侥幸存在，其比例也要小得多，而且由于官员需要公选和评估，他们的势力也要大大减少。这一变化也许是好事，也许是坏事，也许好坏兼而有之。在那旧时的岁月，移民到这片荒滩上的英国定居者，虽然已经把王公贵族以及种种令人生畏的显要抛在脑后，但内心中仍有很强的敬畏的本能和需要，便将此加诸老者的苍苍白发和年迈的额头，加诸久经考验的诚笃，加诸坚实的智慧和悲哀色彩的经历，加诸那种庄重的制度中的才能——那种制度来自“体面”的一般涵义并提供永恒的概念。因此，早年被人们推举而当政的政治家，——勃莱斯特里特、思狄柯特、杜德莱、贝灵汉以及他们的同辈，似乎并非十分英明，但却具备远胜睿智行动的老练沉稳。他们坚定而自信，在困难和危险的时刻，为了国家利益挺身而出，犹如一面危崖迎击拍岸的怒涛。这里提及的性格特点，充分体现在这些新殖民地执政官们的四方脸庞和大块头体格上。就这些生就的当权者的举止而论，这些实行民主的先驱们，即使被接受为贵族院的成员，或委以枢密院顾问之要职，也无愧于他们的英格兰祖国的。

Next in order to the magistrates came the young and eminently distinguished divine, from whose lips the religious discourse of the anniversary was expected. His was the profession, at that era, in which intellectual ability displayed itself far more than in political life; for- leaving a higher motive out of the question- it offered inducements powerful enough, in the almost worshipping respect of the community, to win the most aspiring ambition into its service. Even political power- as in the case of Increase Mather- was within the grasp of a successful priest.
跟在官员们后面依次而来的，是那位声名显赫的青年牧师，人们正期待着从他嘴里听到庆祝日的宗教演说。在那个时代，他从事的职业所显示出的智能要远比从政生涯为多，撇开更高尚的动机不谈，这种职业在引起居民们近乎崇拜的这一点上，就具有极强的诱惑力，足以吸引最有抱负的人侧身其间。甚至连政权都会落在一个成功牧师的掌握之中，英克利斯·马瑟②就是一例。