Puritanism and Poetry: Samuel Gott

Ideas, like nations, pass through a formative, “heroic,” period before their historic realization. Minor writers furnish this formative material. Avoiding the convolutions and backeddies of the main currents of thought, they frequently dig out swift and uncomplicated channels. Their effect on contemporary thinkers is slight; their importance is not realized until later times. Their opinions are rude and unfinished forecasts of ideas, which, in later historical period, become quick and fertile. Such and yet more than such a writer was Samuel Gott. For while he was separate and anticipatory in some of his theories, he nevertheless moved in the main stream of Puritanism. Puritanism, which is generally judged in terms of its antipathies, is in his works revealed in its positive side. His outlook is that of a broad and cultured Protestant. His views are urbane, judicious, and frequently novel. In his remarks on poetry he is revealed both as a typical Puritan and as a thinker of considerable originality. The second half of this article is devoted to an examination of these remarks. The first half is an attempt to assemble from original sources the few extant details of his life and works; it also gives a brief and general picture of his character and outlook.