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Personification
Explanation and Analysis—Experience:
In Book 1, Chapter 4, Bradford recounts the beginnings of the Leyden congregation's decision to colonize New England. The congregation is prompted to make this decision by external stressors, which Bradford describes figuratively through the use of personification:
After they had lived here for some eleven or twelve years, [...] several of them having died, and many others being now old, the grave mistress, Experience, having taught them much, their prudent governors began to apprehend present dangers and to scan the future and think of timely remedy.
In this passage, Bradford personifies experience as a "grave mistress," thus bringing to mind the image of a strict schoolteacher who forces all settlers to learn how to survive the hard way. It is this "Experience" acting upon the Leyden congregation in Holland,that prompts a drastic change. Much like students, the congregation has been challenged by the "grave mistress" to learn and grow. Despite the pain inflicted through these lessons of experience, the congregation has gained the confidence to live and work outside of the comforts of England in a land foreign but no less antagonistic. It is only through the actions of experience, here personified, that the congregation's governors acquired prudence.
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