Salem - Brilliant Wickedness

"If, instead of charging Salem with dullness, Mr. James had accused it of brilliant wickedness, he would have come nearer the mark…

Imagine a community in which abound young men, rich, well educated, having free run whether for business or pleasure among all the savage tribes and oriental nations of the world, and you see that they must quickly become eminent saints or conspicuous sinners, and so they did."  - Rev. George Batchelor (on early 19th century Salem)