Inventing Eden Inventing Eden primitivism, millennialism, and the making of new england Zachary McLeod Hutchins 1 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 © Oxford University Press, 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hutchins, Zachary McLeod. Inventing Eden : primitivism, millennialism, and the making of New England / Zachary McLeod  Hutchins. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-19-999814-2 1. American literature—New England—History and criticism. 2. American literature—17th century—History and criticism. 3. American literature—18th century—History and criticism. 4. Eden in literature. I. Title. PS243.H88 2014 810.9'974—dc23 2013049348 1 3 5 7 9 8 4 6 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Portions of chapter 3 were published previously and are reprinted here by permission of the New England Quarterly and Modern Language Studies. See “Building Bensalem at Massachusetts Bay: Francis Bacon and the Wisdom of Eden in Early Modern New England,” New England Quarterly 83.4 (2010): 577–606; and “The Wisdom of Anne Bradstreet: Eschewing Eve and Emulating Elizabeth,” Modern Language Studies 40.1 (2010): 38–59. Neither man nor woman ever wanted to quit this Eden of their own invention, and could no more have done it of their own accord than the pearl oyster could quit its shell. —the education of henry adams (1918) { Contents } Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Eden and Intellectual History 3 1. Paradise Explained: An Edenic Primer 12 2. Promoting Paradise, Ordering Wilderness: Topographical Optimism Meets Agricultural Reality 35 3. A Body Unembarrassed: Humoral Empowerment and Edenic Temperance 68 4. Building Bensalem at Massachusetts Bay: The Search for Solomon’s Adamic Wisdom 106 5. T ranslating Paradise: Hebrew, Herbert, Milton, Fox, and the Pursuit of Linguistic Purity 135 6. From Pilgrimage to New Birth, Adam to Eve: The Evolution of Edenic Models for Conversion 178 7. Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Eden: The Architects, Slave Laborers, and Master Masons of Freedom’s Temple 209 Epilogue: The Edenic Inheritance 245 Notes 253 Index 323 { Acknowledgments } The intellectual journey culminating in this book began while I was pursuing a bachelor’s degree at Brigham Young University, with the fearless teaching and infectious energy of Janet Garrard; she challenged me to write on a subject I cared about, so for the past ten years, I have. The BYU Office of Research and Creative Activities allowed me to pursue an interest in Eden by financially sup- porting the mentorship of Steve Walker, whose wisdom rivals Solomon’s and will always be a source of strength. When, as an undergraduate, I submitted a term paper on Jonathan Edwards and Eve to Early American Literature, David Shields was both long-suffering and generous in responding to my prose; his decision to publish a version of that essay armed me with the conviction that paradise remained a subject of interest to the field. As a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, after I thought I had learned to write, Eliza Richards taught me how to revise, a far more useful skill. Reid Barbour never allowed me to rest on my laurels, and the breadth of this study is a testament to both his capacious curiosity and his willingness to tutor me on the finer points of seventeenth-century British culture. Laurie Maffly-Kipp understood the point of this book before anyone else and helped me to see the end from the beginning. Mary Floyd-Wilson deserves a special note of thanks for being patient and honest enough to per- sistently point out the flaws in early drafts until I was ready to listen to her in- valuable critiques and for introducing me to the Folger Institute, where David Hall, Laura Lunger Knoppers, and the late Marshall Grossman provided cru- cial feedback. The Americanist Writing Group at UNC also provided helpful commentary on early drafts of several chapters; Angie Calcaterra and Kelly Bezio made that group’s work possible. The friendship of Tim Marr was a pleasant surprise to a young graduate student, and I hope someday to acquire his talent for asking just the right question. Finally, Philip Gura’s scholarship brought me to Chapel Hill and laid the groundwork for all that follows in this study. His expertise opened doors and books that I never would have cracked on my own. I am still his student. As a junior faculty member at BYU and Colorado State University, I have benefited from the aid and sage advice of wonderful colleagues. Among the many individuals at these two institutions whom I count as friends, I am par- ticularly indebted to Brian Roberts, Matt Wickman, John Talbot, Rachel Cope, Phil Snyder, Dennis Perry, Jamie Horrocks, Jamin Rowan, Tessa Hauglid, Amparo Jeffery, Barbara Sebek, and Roze Hentschell. And to my students at