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Chapter 3 "Wonder-Working Providence" of the Market In New England's Prospect (1635), William Wood makes a curious, nostalgic claim about the English environment. Evaluating the "Suitableness" of New England's climate for "English Bodies," he argues that "both summer and winter is more commended of the English there than the summer-winters, and winter-summers of England. And who is there that could not wish that England's climate were as it hath been in quondam times: colder in winter and hotter in summer? Or who will condemn that which is as England hath been?"1 Over the course of this climatic change, English bodies have evidently remained the same, so that they will naturally respond positively to the extremes of the New England climate while retaining their essential Englishness, thereby refuting classical ideas ofenvironmental determinism that could bear against colonization .2 To move to New England, Wood suggests, would be to return to an earlier, better moment, before the seasons got mixed up as they are now, a moment more agreeable to the English. But what could have accounted for the change in climate to which he refers? We know that during the Little Ice Age, circa 1400 to 1700, England experienced especially cool periods, one of which was from 1590 to 1610.3 Wood may have recalled the older generation's tales of those cold years, but since he probably would not have heard of warmer summers during the same period, it is quite possible that he thinks of "quondam times" as dating back to an even earlier era. Further complicating Wood's assessment was the effect of latitude. Because New England is "nearer the equinoctial than England ," as Wood points out, its summer days are "two hours shorter and likewise in winter two hours longer than in England" (31). This fact might on the face of it predict that winters would be warmer in New England. Wood, however, remarks that New England winters are characterized by an "extremity" of "cold weather," which could be rendered "less tedious" by "build[ing] warm houses and mak[ing] good fires" (28). In any case, an argument from latitude could not explain England's climatic change. Some force, then, has evidently been strong enough to overcome the effect of latitude.4 Wood refers to another history that might be correla- "Wonder-Working Providence" 51 tive. Comparing New England's soils with those ofEngland, he concludes that "as there is no ground so purely good as the long forced and improved grounds ofEngland, so is there none so extremely bad as in many places of England that as yet have not been manured and improved.... Wherefore it is neither impossible, nor much improbable, that upon improvements the soil may be as good in time as England" (35). England's soils had been made more productive during the era ofagrarian improvement that began in the sixteenth century.s Given the same regime of improvement , New England's soils would some day be as good or better, following the historical trajectory of England. Yet correlating these two narratives ofenvironmental change, we see that they run counter to each other according to Wood's purposes. If New England were to improve its soils through cultivation and manuring, as Wood recommends, it might experience England's climatic change. In fact Wood cites preliminary evidence of such change: "In former times the rain came seldom but very violently.... But of late the seasons be much altered, the rain coming oftener but more moderately, with lesser thunder and lightnings and sudden gusts ofwind" (31). Ifthis recent moderation of the weather is any indication , it seems that NewEngland will eventuallycome to resemble contemporary England in terms ofphysical environment, with good soils but mixed-up climate. In that case, however, New England would no longer be the desirable environment that "England hath been" in "quondam times." From the perspective of New England, Wood's countervailing environmental narratives embody conflicting forms of nostalgia: on the one hand, a desire for an earlier, purer era; on the other, a desire for England as the colonists knew it. Puritanism put additional pressure on this double nostalgia.6 This pressure is especially evident in Edward Johnson 's Wonder-Working Providence ofSion's Saviour in New England (1651), in which the project ofrecovering the ancient purity ofchurch government and ordinances of worship intersects with the literal nostalgia (a longing for home) evident in the colonists' strenuous efforts to reproduce the economic-environmental context...

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