Gilman M. Ostrander Quote

Settlers of Massachusetts
Were of two sets:
Those by grace of God elected;
Those rejected.
One way to tell the sainted
From the tainted
Was that those whose prayers were heeded
Had succeeded.
As a rule it therefore followed
That the hallowed
Were the favored upper classes
Not the masses.

The Social Structure of Early Massachusetts, in American Heritage, Feb. 1958