Dr. Sprague’s book contains pictures of life under both the old regime and the new.  The following extract from the venerable Josiah Quincy’s recollections of the Rev. Mr. French, of Andover, is interesting, as an illustration of the olden times.

“Mrs. Dowse, my maternal aunt, has often related to me her pride and delight at visiting at the Rev. Mr. Phillips’, her paternal grandfather’s house, when a child; which was interesting as a statement of the manners of those early times in Massachusetts, before the sceptre of worldly power, which the first settlers of the Colony had placed in the hands of the clergy, had been broken.  The period was about between 1760 and the Revolution.  The parsonage at Andover was situated about two or three hundred rods from the meeting-house, which was three stories high, of immense dimensions, far greater, I should think, than those of any meeting-houses in these anti-church-going, degenerate times.  It was on a hill, slightly elevated above the parsonage, so that all the flock could see the pastor as he issued from it.

“Before the time of service, the congregation gradually assembled in early season, coming on foot or on horseback, the ladies behind their lords or brothers or one another, on pillions, so that before the time of service the whole space before the meeting-house was filled with a waiting, respectful, and expecting multitude.  At the moment of service the pastor issued from his mansion with Bible and manuscript sermon under his arm, with his wife leaning on one arm, flanked by his negro man on his side, as his wife was by her negro woman, the little negroes being distributed according to their sex by the side of their respective parents.  Then followed every other member of the family according to age and rank, making often, with family visitants, somewhat of a formidable procession.  As soon as it appeared, the congregation, as if moved by one spirit, began to move towards the door of the church; and before the procession reached it, all were in their places.

“As soon as the pastor entered the church, the whole congregation rose and stood until the pastor was in the pulpit and his family seated,—­until which was done the whole assembly continued standing.  At the close of the service the congregation stood until he and his family had left the church, before any one moved towards the door.

“Forenoon and afternoon the same course of proceeding was had, expressive of the reverential relation in which the people acknowledged that they stood towards their clergyman.

“Such was the account given me by Mrs. Dowse in relation to times previous to my birth, and which I relate as her narrative, and not as part of my recollections.  The procession from the parsonage, the disappearance of the people on the appearance of the procession, and that their pastor was received with every mark of decorum and respect, I well remember, but of their rising at his entrance and standing after the service until he had departed, I have no recollection; my time was almost twenty years after that narrated by Mrs. Dowse.  During that period the Revolution had commenced.”