In this discussion of the colonial home, as in previous discussions, we must depend for information far more upon the writings by men than upon those by women.  Yet, here and there, in the diaries and letters of wives and mothers we catch glimpses of what the institution meant to women—­glimpses of that deep, abiding love and faith that have made the home a favorite theme of song and story.  In the correspondence between husband and wife we have conclusive evidence that woman was held in high respect, her advice often asked, and her influence marked.  The letters of Governor Winthrop to his wife Margaret might be offered as striking illustrations of the confidence, sympathy, and love existing in colonial home life.  Thus, he writes from England:  “My Dear Wife:  Commend my Love to them all.  I kisse & embrace thee, my deare wife, & all my children, & leave thee in His armes who is able to preserve you all, & to fulfill our joye in our happye meeting in His good time.  Amen.  Thy faithfull husband.”  And again just before leaving England he writes to her:  “I must begin now to prepare thee for our long parting which growes very near.  I know not how to deal with thee by arguments; for if thou wert as wise and patient as ever woman was, yet it must needs be a great trial to thee, and the greater because I am so dear to thee.  That which I must chiefly look at in thee for thy ground of contentment is thy godliness.”

Nor were the wife’s replies less warm and affectionate.  Hear this bit from a letter of three centuries ago:  “MY MOST SWEET HUSBAND:—­How dearely welcome thy kinde letter was to me I am not able to expresse.  The sweetnesse of it did much refresh me.  What can be more pleasinge to a wife, than to heare of the welfayre of her best beloved, and how he is pleased with hir pore endevors....  I wish that I may be all-wayes pleasinge to thee, and that those comforts we have in each other may be dayly increced as far as they be pleasinge to God....  I will doe any service whearein I may please my good Husband.  I confess I cannot doe ynough for thee....”

Is it not evident that passionate, reverent love, amounting almost to adoration, was fairly common in those early days?  Numerous other writings of the colonial period could add their testimony.  Sometimes the proof is in the letters of men longing for home and family; sometimes in the messages of the wife longing for the return of her “goodman”; sometimes it is discerned in bits of verse, such as those by Ann Bradstreet, or in an enthusiastic description of a woman, such as that by Jonathan Edwards about his future wife.  Note the fervor of this famous eulogy by the “coldly logical” Edwards; can it be excelled in genuine warmth by the love letters of famous men in later days?