Nor can there be any doubt but that his teachings
found far more general acceptance than is to be gathered from modern
histories of the troubled times in which his lot was cast. For not only
was there sufficient demand to warrant the publication of at least two
editions of _The Law of Freedom_, as of several of his other pamphlets,
but additional testimony is to be gathered from the fact that his
writings were immediately pirated and issued under new titles by other
publishers:[232:1] than which no better evidence can be had of the
popularity of any writer.
However this may be, new and less earnest and less strenuous generations
arose which knew not Winstanley, and heeded not his teachings; and till
very recent years both he and his teachings have remained utterly
forgotten. And yet we write the closing lines of our work with the same
conviction with which we commenced it some five years ago, that not only
was Gerrard Winstanley a man worthy to be recalled to the memory of his
fellow-countrymen, as one who deserved well of his day, of his
generation and of his country, but that the intrinsic merits of his
writings and teachings make them worthy of our most careful study, of
our highest admiration, and of our most profound respect.
True, they have hitherto received but scant consideration; but this need
neither surprise nor disturb us. The man in whose heart a new truth is
born may be a benefactor of his species; but, as all history teaches us,
if he have courage to proclaim it to the world, he must be prepared to
meet the hatred, scoffing and abuse of the ignorant, the sneering
contempt, if not bitter persecution, of the learned and highly placed
upholders of already accepted beliefs and superstitions.
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