The conceptual and cultural background for Puritan opposition to idleness are examined. Also included is a review of the educational ideals portrayed in the sixteenth-century "courtesy literature" (intended for instruction of the aristocracy). A likely source for Puritan views is England rather than New England. (RM)

The pedagogical changes introduced during the Great Awakening reveal that the Puritans of the seventeenth century had not exhausted the educational alternatives open to them; later innovations were developed within the analytical framework built by the seventeenth-century writers. (JB)