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diff --git a/922-h/922-h.htm b/922-h/922-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4aae02e --- /dev/null +++ b/922-h/922-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1663 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Sunday under Three Heads, by Charles Dickens</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.gutsumm { margin-left: 5%;} + P.poetry {margin-left: 3%; } + .GutSmall { font-size: 0.7em; } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + color: gray; + } + img { border: none; } + img.dc { float: left; width: 50px; height: 50px; } + p.gutindent { margin-left: 2em; } + div.gapspace { height: 0.8em; } + div.gapline { height: 0.8em; width: 100%; border-top: 1px solid;} + div.gapmediumline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + div.gapmediumdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; + margin-left: 40%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid; } + div.gapdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 50%; + margin-left: 25%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; margin-left:40%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + img.floatleft { float: left; + margin-right: 1em; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.floatright { float: right; + margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.clearcenter {display: block; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Sunday under Three Heads, by Charles Dickens + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + + + +Title: Sunday under Three Heads + + +Author: Charles Dickens + + + +Release Date: January 4, 2015 [eBook #922] +[This file was first posted on May 29, 1997] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUNDAY UNDER THREE HEADS*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the 1905 Chapman & Hall edition (<i>The +Works of Charles Dickens</i>, volume 28) by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/coverb.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Book cover" +title= +"Book cover" + src="images/covers.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h1>SUNDAY UNDER THREE HEADS</h1> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">By CHARLES DICKENS</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL, LD.<br +/> +NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS<br /> +1905</p> +<h2>DEDICATION</h2> +<p style="text-align: center"><b>To The Right Reverend</b><br /> +THE BISHOP OF LONDON</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My Lord</span>,</p> +<p>You were among the first, some years ago, to expatiate on the +vicious addiction of the lower classes of society to Sunday +excursions; and were thus instrumental in calling forth +occasional demonstrations of those extreme opinions on the +subject, which are very generally received with derision, if not +with contempt.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>Your elevated station, my Lord, affords you countless +opportunities of increasing the comforts and pleasures of the +humbler classes of society—not by the expenditure of the +smallest portion of your princely income, but by merely +sanctioning with the influence of your example, their harmless +pastimes, and innocent recreations.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>That your Lordship would ever have contemplated Sunday +recreations with so much horror, if you had been at all +acquainted with the wants and necessities of the people who +indulged in them, I cannot imagine possible. That a Prelate +of your elevated rank has the faintest conception of the extent +of those wants, and the nature of those necessities, I do not +believe.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>For these reasons, I venture to address this little Pamphlet +to your Lordship’s consideration. I am quite +conscious that the outlines I have drawn, afford but a very +imperfect description of the feelings they are intended to +illustrate; but I claim for them one merit—their truth and +freedom from exaggeration. I may have fallen short of the +mark, but I have never overshot it: and while I have pointed out +what appears to me, to be injustice on the part of others, I hope +I have carefully abstained from committing it myself.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>I am,<br /> + My Lord,</p> +<p style="text-align: center">Your Lordship’s most +obedient,</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Humble Servant,<br /> +TIMOTHY SPARKS.</p> +<p><i>June</i>, 1836.</p> +<h2>I<br /> +AS IT IS</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">There</span> are few things from which I +derive greater pleasure, than walking through some of the +principal streets of London on a fine Sunday, in summer, and +watching the cheerful faces of the lively groups with which they +are thronged. There is something, to my eyes at least, +exceedingly pleasing in the general desire evinced by the humbler +classes of society, to appear neat and clean on this their only +holiday. There are many grave old persons, I know, who +shake their heads with an air of profound wisdom, and tell you +that poor people dress too well now-a-days; that when they were +children, folks knew their stations in life better; that you may +depend upon it, no good will come of this sort of thing in the +end,—and so forth: but I fancy I can discern in the fine +bonnet of the working-man’s wife, or the feather-bedizened +hat of his child, no inconsiderable evidence of good feeling on +the part of the man himself, and an affectionate desire to expend +the few shillings he can spare from his week’s wages, in +improving the appearance and adding to the happiness of those who +are nearest and dearest to him. This may be a very heinous +and unbecoming degree of vanity, perhaps, and the money might +possibly be applied to better uses; it must not be forgotten, +however, that it might very easily be devoted to worse: and if +two or three faces can be rendered happy and contented, by a +trifling improvement of outward appearance, I cannot help +thinking that the object is very cheaply purchased, even at the +expense of a smart gown, or a gaudy riband. There is a +great deal of very unnecessary cant about the over-dressing of +the common people. There is not a manufacturer or tradesman +in existence, who would not employ a man who takes a reasonable +degree of pride in the appearance of himself and those about him, +in preference to a sullen, slovenly fellow, who works doggedly +on, regardless of his own clothing and that of his wife and +children, and seeming to take pleasure or pride in nothing.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>The pampered aristocrat, whose life is one continued round of +licentious pleasures and sensual gratifications; or the gloomy +enthusiast, who detests the cheerful amusements he can never +enjoy, and envies the healthy feelings he can never know, and who +would put down the one and suppress the other, until he made the +minds of his fellow-beings as besotted and distorted as his +own;—neither of these men can by possibility form an +adequate notion of what Sunday really is to those whose lives are +spent in sedentary or laborious occupations, and who are +accustomed to look forward to it through their whole existence, +as their only day of rest from toil, and innocent enjoyment.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>The sun that rises over the quiet streets of London on a +bright Sunday morning, shines till his setting, on gay and happy +faces. Here and there, so early as six o’clock, a +young man and woman in their best attire, may be seen hurrying +along on their way to the house of some acquaintance, who is +included in their scheme of pleasure for the day; from whence, +after stopping to take “a bit of breakfast,” they +sally forth, accompanied by several old people, and a whole crowd +of young ones, bearing large hand-baskets full of provisions, and +Belcher handkerchiefs done up in bundles, with the neck of a +bottle sticking out at the top, and closely-packed apples bulging +out at the sides,—and away they hurry along the streets +leading to the steam-packet wharfs, which are already plentifully +sprinkled with parties bound for the same destination. +Their good humour and delight know no bounds—for it is a +delightful morning, all blue over head, and nothing like a cloud +in the whole sky; and even the air of the river at London Bridge +is something to them, shut up as they have been, all the week, in +close streets and heated rooms. There are dozens of +steamers to all sorts of places—Gravesend, Greenwich, and +Richmond; and such numbers of people, that when you have once sat +down on the deck, it is all but a moral impossibility to get up +again—to say nothing of walking about, which is entirely +out of the question. Away they go, joking and laughing, and +eating and drinking, and admiring everything they see, and +pleased with everything they hear, to climb Windmill Hill, and +catch a glimpse of the rich corn-fields and beautiful orchards of +Kent; or to stroll among the fine old trees of Greenwich Park, +and survey the wonders of Shooter’s Hill and Lady +James’s Folly; or to glide past the beautiful meadows of +Twickenham and Richmond, and to gaze with a delight which only +people like them can know, on every lovely object in the fair +prospect around. Boat follows boat, and coach succeeds +coach, for the next three hours; but all are filled, and all with +the same kind of people—neat and clean, cheerful and +contented.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>They reach their places of destination, and the taverns are +crowded; but there is no drunkenness or brawling, for the class +of men who commit the enormity of making Sunday excursions, take +their families with them: and this in itself would be a check +upon them, even if they were inclined to dissipation, which they +really are not. Boisterous their mirth may be, for they +have all the excitement of feeling that fresh air and green +fields can impart to the dwellers in crowded cities, but it is +innocent and harmless. The glass is circulated, and the +joke goes round; but the one is free from excess, and the other +from offence; and nothing but good humour and hilarity +prevail.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>In streets like Holborn and Tottenham Court Road, which form +the central market of a large neighbourhood, inhabited by a vast +number of mechanics and poor people, a few shops are open at an +early hour of the morning; and a very poor man, with a thin and +sickly woman by his side, may be seen with their little basket in +hand, purchasing the scanty quantity of necessaries they can +afford, which the time at which the man receives his wages, or +his having a good deal of work to do, or the woman’s having +been out charing till a late hour, prevented their procuring +over-night. The coffee-shops too, at which clerks and young +men employed in counting-houses can procure their breakfasts, are +also open. This class comprises, in a place like London, an +enormous number of people, whose limited means prevent their +engaging for their lodgings any other apartment than a bedroom, +and who have consequently no alternative but to take their +breakfasts at a coffee-shop, or go without it altogether. +All these places, however, are quickly closed; and by the time +the church bells begin to ring, all appearance of traffic has +ceased. And then, what are the signs of immorality that +meet the eye? Churches are well filled, and +Dissenters’ chapels are crowded to suffocation. There +is no preaching to empty benches, while the drunken and dissolute +populace run riot in the streets.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>Here is a fashionable church, where the service commences at a +late hour, for the accommodation of such members of the +congregation—and they are not a few—as may happen to +have lingered at the Opera far into the morning of the Sabbath; +an excellent contrivance for poising the balance between God and +Mammon, and illustrating the ease with which a man’s duties +to both, may be accommodated and adjusted. How the +carriages rattle up, and deposit their richly-dressed burdens +beneath the lofty portico! The powdered footmen glide along +the aisle, place the richly-bound prayer-books on the pew desks, +slam the doors, and hurry away, leaving the fashionable members +of the congregation to inspect each other through their glasses, +and to dazzle and glitter in the eyes of the few shabby people in +the free seats. The organ peals forth, the hired singers +commence a short hymn, and the congregation condescendingly rise, +stare about them, and converse in whispers. The clergyman +enters the reading-desk,—a young man of noble family and +elegant demeanour, notorious at Cambridge for his knowledge of +horse-flesh and dancers, and celebrated at Eton for his hopeless +stupidity. The service commences. Mark the soft voice +in which he reads, and the impressive manner in which he applies +his white hand, studded with brilliants, to his perfumed +hair. Observe the graceful emphasis with which he offers up +the prayers for the King, the Royal Family, and all the Nobility; +and the nonchalance with which he hurries over the more +uncomfortable portions of the service, the seventh commandment +for instance, with a studied regard for the taste and feeling of +his auditors, only to be equalled by that displayed by the sleek +divine who succeeds him, who murmurs, in a voice kept down by +rich feeding, most comfortable doctrines for exactly twelve +minutes, and then arrives at the anxiously expected ‘Now to +God,’ which is the signal for the dismissal of the +congregation. The organ is again heard; those who have been +asleep wake up, and those who have kept awake, smile and seem +greatly relieved; bows and congratulations are exchanged, the +livery servants are all bustle and commotion, bang go the steps, +up jump the footmen, and off rattle the carriages: the inmates +discoursing on the dresses of the congregation, and +congratulating themselves on having set so excellent an example +to the community in general, and Sunday-pleasurers in +particular.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>Enter a less orthodox place of religious worship, and observe +the contrast. A small close chapel with a white-washed +wall, and plain deal pews and pulpit, contains a closely-packed +congregation, as different in dress, as they are opposed in +manner, to that we have just quitted. The hymn is +sung—not by paid singers, but by the whole assembly at the +loudest pitch of their voices, unaccompanied by any musical +instrument, the words being given out, two lines at a time, by +the clerk. There is something in the sonorous quavering of +the harsh voices, in the lank and hollow faces of the men, and +the sour solemnity of the women, which bespeaks this a +strong-hold of intolerant zeal and ignorant enthusiasm. The +preacher enters the pulpit. He is a coarse, hard-faced man +of forbidding aspect, clad in rusty black, and bearing in his +hand a small plain Bible from which he selects some passage for +his text, while the hymn is concluding. The congregation +fall upon their knees, and are hushed into profound stillness as +he delivers an extempore prayer, in which he calls upon the +Sacred Founder of the Christian faith to bless his ministry, in +terms of disgusting and impious familiarity not to be +described. He begins his oration in a drawling tone, and +his hearers listen with silent attention. He grows warmer +as he proceeds with his subject, and his gesticulation becomes +proportionately violent. He clenches his fists, beats the +book upon the desk before him, and swings his arms wildly about +his head. The congregation murmur their acquiescence in his +doctrines: and a short groan, occasionally bears testimony to the +moving nature of his eloquence. Encouraged by these +symptoms of approval, and working himself up to a pitch of +enthusiasm amounting almost to frenzy, he denounces +sabbath-breakers with the direst vengeance of offended +Heaven. He stretches his body half out of the pulpit, +thrusts forth his arms with frantic gestures, and blasphemously +calls upon The Deity to visit with eternal torments, those who +turn aside from the word, as interpreted and preached +by—himself. A low moaning is heard, the women rock +their bodies to and fro, and wring their hands; the +preacher’s fervour increases, the perspiration starts upon +his brow, his face is flushed, and he clenches his hands +convulsively, as he draws a hideous and appalling picture of the +horrors preparing for the wicked in a future state. A great +excitement is visible among his hearers, a scream is heard, and +some young girl falls senseless on the floor. There is a +momentary rustle, but it is only for a moment—all eyes are +turned towards the preacher. He pauses, passes his +handkerchief across his face, and looks complacently round. +His voice resumes its natural tone, as with mock humility he +offers up a thanksgiving for having been successful in his +efforts, and having been permitted to rescue one sinner from the +path of evil. He sinks back into his seat, exhausted with +the violence of his ravings; the girl is removed, a hymn is sung, +a petition for some measure for securing the better observance of +the Sabbath, which has been prepared by the good man, is read; +and his worshipping admirers struggle who shall be the first to +sign it.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>But the morning service has concluded, and the streets are +again crowded with people. Long rows of cleanly-dressed +charity children, preceded by a portly beadle and a withered +schoolmaster, are returning to their welcome dinner; and it is +evident, from the number of men with beer-trays who are running +from house to house, that no inconsiderable portion of the +population are about to take theirs at this early hour. The +bakers’ shops in the humbler suburbs especially, are filled +with men, women, and children, each anxiously waiting for the +Sunday dinner. Look at the group of children who surround +that working man who has just emerged from the baker’s shop +at the corner of the street, with the reeking dish, in which a +diminutive joint of mutton simmers above a vast heap of +half-browned potatoes. How the young rogues clap their +hands, and dance round their father, for very joy at the prospect +of the feast: and how anxiously the youngest and chubbiest of the +lot, lingers on tiptoe by his side, trying to get a peep into the +interior of the dish. They turn up the street, and the +chubby-faced boy trots on as fast as his little legs will carry +him, to herald the approach of the dinner to ‘Mother’ +who is standing with a baby in her arms on the doorstep, and who +seems almost as pleased with the whole scene as the children +themselves; whereupon ‘baby’ not precisely +understanding the importance of the business in hand, but clearly +perceiving that it is something unusually lively, kicks and crows +most lustily, to the unspeakable delight of all the children and +both the parents: and the dinner is borne into the house amidst a +shouting of small voices, and jumping of fat legs, which would +fill Sir Andrew Agnew with astonishment; as well it might, seeing +that Baronets, generally speaking, eat pretty comfortable dinners +all the week through, and cannot be expected to understand what +people feel, who only have a meat dinner on one day out of every +seven.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>The bakings being all duly consigned to their respective +owners, and the beer-man having gone his rounds, the church bells +ring for afternoon service, the shops are again closed, and the +streets are more than ever thronged with people; some who have +not been to church in the morning, going to it now; others who +have been to church, going out for a walk; and others—let +us admit the full measure of their guilt—going for a walk, +who have not been to church at all. I am afraid the smart +servant of all work, who has been loitering at the corner of the +square for the last ten minutes, is one of the latter +class. She is evidently waiting for somebody, and though +she may have made up her mind to go to church with him one of +these mornings, I don’t think they have any such intention +on this particular afternoon. Here he is, at last. +The white trousers, blue coat, and yellow waistcoat—and +more especially that cock of the hat—indicate, as surely as +inanimate objects can, that Chalk Farm and not the parish church, +is their destination. The girl colours up, and puts out her +hand with a very awkward affectation of indifference. He +gives it a gallant squeeze, and away they walk, arm in arm, the +girl just looking back towards her ‘place’ with an +air of conscious self-importance, and nodding to her +fellow-servant who has gone up to the two-pair-of-stairs window, +to take a full view of ‘Mary’s young man,’ +which being communicated to William, he takes off his hat to the +fellow-servant: a proceeding which affords unmitigated +satisfaction to all parties, and impels the fellow-servant to +inform Miss Emily confidentially, in the course of the evening, +‘that the young man as Mary keeps company with, is one of +the most genteelest young men as ever she see.’</p> +<p> </p> +<p>The two young people who have just crossed the road, and are +following this happy couple down the street, are a fair specimen +of another class of Sunday—pleasurers. There is a +dapper smartness, struggling through very limited means, about +the young man, which induces one to set him down at once as a +junior clerk to a tradesman or attorney. The girl no one +could possibly mistake. You may tell a young woman in the +employment of a large dress-maker, at any time, by a certain +neatness of cheap finery and humble following of fashion, which +pervade her whole attire; but unfortunately there are other +tokens not to be misunderstood—the pale face with its +hectic bloom, the slight distortion of form which no artifice of +dress can wholly conceal, the unhealthy stoop, and the short +cough—the effects of hard work and close application to a +sedentary employment, upon a tender frame. They turn +towards the fields. The girl’s countenance brightens, +and an unwonted glow rises in her face. They are going to +Hampstead or Highgate, to spend their holiday afternoon in some +place where they can see the sky, the fields, and trees, and +breathe for an hour or two the pure air, which so seldom plays +upon that poor girl’s form, or exhilarates her spirits.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>I would to God, that the iron-hearted man who would deprive +such people as these of their only pleasures, could feel the +sinking of heart and soul, the wasting exhaustion of mind and +body, the utter prostration of present strength and future hope, +attendant upon that incessant toil which lasts from day to day, +and from month to month; that toil which is too often protracted +until the silence of midnight, and resumed with the first stir of +morning. How marvellously would his ardent zeal for other +men’s souls, diminish after a short probation, and how +enlightened and comprehensive would his views of the real object +and meaning of the institution of the Sabbath become!</p> +<p> </p> +<p>The afternoon is far advanced—the parks and public +drives are crowded. Carriages, gigs, phaetons, stanhopes, +and vehicles of every description, glide smoothly on. The +promenades are filled with loungers on foot, and the road is +thronged with loungers on horseback. Persons of every class +are crowded together, here, in one dense mass. The +plebeian, who takes his pleasure on no day but Sunday, jostles +the patrician, who takes his, from year’s end to +year’s end. You look in vain for any outward signs of +profligacy or debauchery. You see nothing before you but a +vast number of people, the denizens of a large and crowded city, +in the needful and rational enjoyment of air and exercise.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>It grows dusk. The roads leading from the different +places of suburban resort, are crowded with people on their +return home, and the sound of merry voices rings through the +gradually darkening fields. The evening is hot and +sultry. The rich man throws open the sashes of his spacious +dining-room, and quaffs his iced wine in splendid luxury. +The poor man, who has no room to take his meals in, but the close +apartment to which he and his family have been confined +throughout the week, sits in the tea-garden of some famous +tavern, and drinks his beer in content and comfort. The +fields and roads are gradually deserted, the crowd once more pour +into the streets, and disperse to their several homes; and by +midnight all is silent and quiet, save where a few stragglers +linger beneath the window of some great man’s house, to +listen to the strains of music from within: or stop to gaze upon +the splendid carriages which are waiting to convey the guests +from the dinner-party of an Earl.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>There is a darker side to this picture, on which, so far from +its being any part of my purpose to conceal it, I wish to lay +particular stress. In some parts of London, and in many of +the manufacturing towns of England, drunkenness and profligacy in +their most disgusting forms, exhibit in the open streets on +Sunday, a sad and a degrading spectacle. We need go no +farther than St. Giles’s, or Drury Lane, for sights and +scenes of a most repulsive nature. Women with scarcely the +articles of apparel which common decency requires, with forms +bloated by disease, and faces rendered hideous by habitual +drunkenness—men reeling and staggering along—children +in rags and filth—whole streets of squalid and miserable +appearance, whose inhabitants are lounging in the public road, +fighting, screaming, and swearing—these are the common +objects which present themselves in, these are the well-known +characteristics of, that portion of London to which I have just +referred.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>And why is it, that all well-disposed persons are shocked, and +public decency scandalised, by such exhibitions?</p> +<p> </p> +<p>These people are poor—that is notorious. It may be +said that they spend in liquor, money with which they might +purchase necessaries, and there is no denying the fact; but let +it be remembered that even if they applied every farthing of +their earnings in the best possible way, they would still be +very—very poor. Their dwellings are necessarily +uncomfortable, and to a certain degree unhealthy. +Cleanliness might do much, but they are too crowded together, the +streets are too narrow, and the rooms too small, to admit of +their ever being rendered desirable habitations. They work +very hard all the week. We know that the effect of +prolonged and arduous labour, is to produce, when a period of +rest does arrive, a sensation of lassitude which it requires the +application of some stimulus to overcome. What stimulus +have they? Sunday comes, and with it a cessation of +labour. How are they to employ the day, or what inducement +have they to employ it, in recruiting their stock of +health? They see little parties, on pleasure excursions, +passing through the streets; but they cannot imitate their +example, for they have not the means. They may walk, to be +sure, but it is exactly the inducement to walk that they +require. If every one of these men knew, that by taking the +trouble to walk two or three miles he would be enabled to share +in a good game of cricket, or some athletic sport, I very much +question whether any of them would remain at home.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>But you hold out no inducement, you offer no relief from +listlessness, you provide nothing to amuse his mind, you afford +him no means of exercising his body. Unwashed and unshaven, +he saunters moodily about, weary and dejected. In lieu of +the wholesome stimulus he might derive from nature, you drive him +to the pernicious excitement to be gained from art. He +flies to the gin-shop as his only resource; and when, reduced to +a worse level than the lowest brute in the scale of creation, he +lies wallowing in the kennel, your saintly lawgivers lift up +their hands to heaven, and exclaim for a law which shall convert +the day intended for rest and cheerfulness, into one of universal +gloom, bigotry, and persecution.</p> +<h2>II<br /> +AS SABBATH BILLS WOULD MAKE IT</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> provisions of the bill +introduced into the House of Commons by Sir Andrew Agnew, and +thrown out by that House on the motion for the second reading, on +the 18th of May in the present year, by a majority of 32, may +very fairly be taken as a test of the length to which the +fanatics, of which the honourable Baronet is the distinguished +leader, are prepared to go. No test can be fairer; because +while on the one hand this measure may be supposed to exhibit all +that improvement which mature reflection and long deliberation +may have suggested, so on the other it may very reasonably be +inferred, that if it be quite as severe in its provisions, and to +the full as partial in its operation, as those which have +preceded it and experienced a similar fate, the disease under +which the honourable Baronet and his friends labour, is perfectly +hopeless, and beyond the reach of cure.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>The proposed enactments of the bill are briefly +these:—All work is prohibited on the Lord’s day, +under heavy penalties, increasing with every repetition of the +offence. There are penalties for keeping shops +open—penalties for drunkenness—penalties for keeping +open houses of entertainment—penalties for being present at +any public meeting or assembly—penalties for letting +carriages, and penalties for hiring them—penalties for +travelling in steam-boats, and penalties for taking +passengers—penalties on vessels commencing their voyage on +Sunday—penalties on the owners of cattle who suffer them to +be driven on the Lord’s day—penalties on constables +who refuse to act, and penalties for resisting them when they +do. In addition to these trifles, the constables are +invested with arbitrary, vexatious, and most extensive powers; +and all this in a bill which sets out with a hypocritical and +canting declaration that ‘nothing is more acceptable to God +than the <i>true and sincere</i> worship of Him according to His +holy will, and that it is the bounden duty of Parliament to +promote the observance of the Lord’s day, by protecting +every class of society against being required to sacrifice their +comfort, health, religious privileges, and conscience, for the +convenience, enjoyment, or supposed advantage of any other class +on the Lord’s day’! The idea of making a man +truly moral through the ministry of constables, and sincerely +religious under the influence of penalties, is worthy of the mind +which could form such a mass of monstrous absurdity as this bill +is composed of.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>The House of Commons threw the measure out certainly, and by +so doing retrieved the disgrace—so far as it could be +retrieved—of placing among the printed papers of +Parliament, such an egregious specimen of legislative folly; but +there was a degree of delicacy and forbearance about the debate +that took place, which I cannot help thinking as unnecessary and +uncalled for, as it is unusual in Parliamentary +discussions. If it had been the first time of Sir Andrew +Agnew’s attempting to palm such a measure upon the country, +we might well understand, and duly appreciate, the delicate and +compassionate feeling due to the supposed weakness and imbecility +of the man, which prevented his proposition being exposed in its +true colours, and induced this Hon. Member to bear testimony to +his excellent motives, and that Noble Lord to regret that he +could not—although he had tried to do so—adopt any +portion of the bill. But when these attempts have been +repeated, again and again; when Sir Andrew Agnew has renewed them +session after session, and when it has become palpably evident to +the whole House that</p> +<blockquote><p>His impudence of proof in every trial,<br /> +Kens no polite, and heeds no plain denial—</p> +</blockquote> +<p>it really becomes high time to speak of him and his +legislation, as they appear to deserve, without that gloss of +politeness, which is all very well in an ordinary case, but +rather out of place when the liberties and comforts of a whole +people are at stake.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>In the first place, it is by no means the worst characteristic +of this bill, that it is a bill of blunders: it is, from +beginning to end, a piece of deliberate cruelty, and crafty +injustice. If the rich composed the whole population of +this country, not a single comfort of one single man would be +affected by it. It is directed exclusively, and without the +exception of a solitary instance, against the amusements and +recreations of the poor. This was the bait held out by the +Hon. Baronet to a body of men, who cannot be supposed to have any +very strong sympathies in common with the poor, because they +cannot understand their sufferings or their struggles. This +is the bait, which will in time prevail, unless public attention +is awakened, and public feeling exerted, to prevent it.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>Take the very first clause, the provision that no man shall be +allowed to work on Sunday—‘That no person, upon the +Lord’s day, shall do, or hire, or employ any person to do +any manner of labour, or any work of his or her ordinary +calling.’ What class of persons does this +affect? The rich man? No. Menial servants, both +male and female, are specially exempted from the operation of the +bill. ‘Menial servants’ are among the poor +people. The bill has no regard for them. The +Baronet’s dinner must be cooked on Sunday, the +Bishop’s horses must be groomed, and the Peer’s +carriage must be driven. So the menial servants are put +utterly beyond the pale of grace;—unless indeed, they are +to go to heaven through the sanctity of their masters, and +possibly they might think even that, rather an uncertain +passport.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>There is a penalty for keeping open, houses of +entertainment. Now, suppose the bill had passed, and that +half-a-dozen adventurous licensed victuallers, relying upon the +excitement of public feeling on the subject, and the consequent +difficulty of conviction (this is by no means an improbable +supposition), had determined to keep their houses and gardens +open, through the whole Sunday afternoon, in defiance of the +law. Every act of hiring or working, every act of buying or +selling, or delivering, or causing anything to be bought or sold, +is specifically made a separate offence—mark the +effect. A party, a man and his wife and children, enter a +tea-garden, and the informer stations himself in the next box, +from whence he can see and hear everything that passes. +‘Waiter!’ says the father. ‘Yes. +Sir.’ ‘Pint of the best ale!’ +‘Yes, Sir.’ Away runs the waiter to the bar, +and gets the ale from the landlord. Out comes the +informer’s note-book—penalty on the father for +hiring, on the waiter for delivering, and on the landlord for +selling, on the Lord’s day. But it does not stop +here. The waiter delivers the ale, and darts off, little +suspecting the penalties in store for him. +‘Hollo,’ cries the father, +‘waiter!’ ‘Yes, Sir.’ +‘Just get this little boy a biscuit, will you?’ +‘Yes, Sir.’ Off runs the waiter again, and down +goes another case of hiring, another case of delivering, and +another case of selling; and so it would go on <i>ad +infinitum</i>, the sum and substance of the matter being, that +every time a man or woman cried ‘Waiter!’ on Sunday, +he or she would be fined not less than forty shillings, nor more +than a hundred; and every time a waiter replied, ‘Yes, +Sir,’ he and his master would be fined in the same amount: +with the addition of a new sort of window duty on the landlord, +to wit, a tax of twenty shillings an hour for every hour beyond +the first one, during which he should have his shutters down on +the Sabbath.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>With one exception, there are perhaps no clauses in the whole +bill, so strongly illustrative of its partial operation, and the +intention of its framer, as those which relate to travelling on +Sunday. Penalties of ten, twenty, and thirty pounds, are +mercilessly imposed upon coach proprietors who shall run their +coaches on the Sabbath; one, two, and ten pounds upon those who +hire, or let to hire, horses and carriages upon the Lord’s +day, but not one syllable about those who have no necessity to +hire, because they have carriages and horses of their own; not +one word of a penalty on liveried coachmen and footmen. The +whole of the saintly venom is directed against the hired +cabriolet, the humble fly, or the rumbling hackney-coach, which +enables a man of the poorer class to escape for a few hours from +the smoke and dirt, in the midst of which he has been confined +throughout the week: while the escutcheoned carriage and the +dashing cab, may whirl their wealthy owners to Sunday feasts and +private oratorios, setting constables, informers, and penalties, +at defiance. Again, in the description of the places of +public resort which it is rendered criminal to attend on Sunday, +there are no words comprising a very fashionable promenade. +Public discussions, public debates, public lectures and speeches, +are cautiously guarded against; for it is by their means that the +people become enlightened enough to deride the last efforts of +bigotry and superstition. There is a stringent provision +for punishing the poor man who spends an hour in a news-room, but +there is nothing to prevent the rich one from lounging away the +day in the Zoological Gardens.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>There is, in four words, a mock proviso, which affects to +forbid travelling ‘with any animal’ on the +Lord’s day. This, however, is revoked, as relates to +the rich man, by a subsequent provision. We have then a +penalty of not less than fifty, nor more than one hundred pounds, +upon any person participating in the control, or having the +command of any vessel which shall commence her voyage on the +Lord’s day, should the wind prove favourable. The +next time this bill is brought forward (which will no doubt be at +an early period of the next session of Parliament) perhaps it +will be better to amend this clause by declaring, that from and +after the passing of the act, it shall be deemed unlawful for the +wind to blow at all upon the Sabbath. It would remove a +great deal of temptation from the owners and captains of +vessels.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>The reader is now in possession of the principal enacting +clauses of Sir Andrew Agnew’s bill, with the exception of +one, for preventing the killing or taking of ‘<i>fish</i>, +<i>or other wild animals</i>,’ and the ordinary provisions +which are inserted for form’s sake in all acts of +Parliament. I now beg his attention to the clauses of +exemption.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>They are two in number. The first exempts menial +servants from any rest, and all poor men from any recreation: +outlaws a milkman after nine o’clock in the morning, and +makes eating-houses lawful for only two hours in the afternoon; +permits a medical man to use his carriage on Sunday, and declares +that a clergyman may either use his own, or hire one.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>The second is artful, cunning, and designing; shielding the +rich man from the possibility of being entrapped, and affecting +at the same time, to have a tender and scrupulous regard, for the +interests of the whole community. It declares, ‘that +nothing in this act contained, shall extend to works of piety, +charity, or necessity.’</p> +<p> </p> +<p>What is meant by the word ‘necessity’ in this +clause? Simply this—that the rich man shall be at +liberty to make use of all the splendid luxuries he has collected +around him, on any day in the week, because habit and custom have +rendered them ‘necessary’ to his easy existence; but +that the poor man who saves his money to provide some little +pleasure for himself and family at lengthened intervals, shall +not be permitted to enjoy it. It is not +‘necessary’ to him:—Heaven knows, he very often +goes long enough without it. This is the plain English of +the clause. The carriage and pair of horses, the coachman, +the footman, the helper, and the groom, are +‘necessary’ on Sundays, as on other days, to the +bishop and the nobleman; but the hackney-coach, the hired gig, or +the taxed cart, cannot possibly be ‘necessary’ to the +working-man on Sunday, for he has it not at other times. +The sumptuous dinner and the rich wines, are +‘necessaries’ to a great man in his own mansion: but +the pint of beer and the plate of meat, degrade the national +character in an eating-house.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>Such is the bill for promoting the true and sincere worship of +God according to his Holy Will, and for protecting every class of +society against being required to sacrifice their health and +comfort on the Sabbath. Instances in which its operation +would be as unjust as it would be absurd, might be multiplied to +an endless amount; but it is sufficient to place its leading +provisions before the reader. In doing so, I have purposely +abstained from drawing upon the imagination for possible cases; +the provisions to which I have referred, stand in so many words +upon the bill as printed by order of the House of Commons; and +they can neither be disowned, nor explained away.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>Let us suppose such a bill as this, to have actually passed +both branches of the legislature; to have received the royal +assent; and to have come into operation. Imagine its effect +in a great city like London.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>Sunday comes, and brings with it a day of general gloom and +austerity. The man who has been toiling hard all the week, +has been looking towards the Sabbath, not as to a day of rest +from labour, and healthy recreation, but as one of grievous +tyranny and grinding oppression. The day which his Maker +intended as a blessing, man has converted into a curse. +Instead of being hailed by him as his period of relaxation, he +finds it remarkable only as depriving him of every comfort and +enjoyment. He has many children about him, all sent into +the world at an early age, to struggle for a livelihood; one is +kept in a warehouse all day, with an interval of rest too short +to enable him to reach home, another walks four or five miles to +his employment at the docks, a third earns a few shillings +weekly, as an errand boy, or office messenger; and the employment +of the man himself, detains him at some distance from his home +from morning till night. Sunday is the only day on which +they could all meet together, and enjoy a homely meal in social +comfort; and now they sit down to a cold and cheerless dinner: +the pious guardians of the man’s salvation having, in their +regard for the welfare of his precious soul, shut up the +bakers’ shops. The fire blazes high in the kitchen +chimney of these well-fed hypocrites, and the rich steams of the +savoury dinner scent the air. What care they to be told +that this class of men have neither a place to cook in—nor +means to bear the expense, if they had?</p> +<p> </p> +<p>Look into your churches—diminished congregations, and +scanty attendance. People have grown sullen and obstinate, +and are becoming disgusted with the faith which condemns them to +such a day as this, once in every seven. And as you cannot +make people religious by Act of Parliament, or force them to +church by constables, they display their feeling by staying +away.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>Turn into the streets, and mark the rigid gloom that reigns +over everything around. The roads are empty, the fields are +deserted, the houses of entertainment are closed. Groups of +filthy and discontented-looking men, are idling about at the +street corners, or sleeping in the sun; but there are no +decently-dressed people of the poorer class, passing to and +fro. Where should they walk to? It would take them an +hour, at least, to get into the fields, and when they reached +them, they could procure neither bite nor sup, without the +informer and the penalty. Now and then, a carriage rolls +smoothly on, or a well-mounted horseman, followed by a liveried +attendant, canters by; but with these exceptions, all is as +melancholy and quiet as if a pestilence had fallen on the +city.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>Bend your steps through the narrow and thickly-inhabited +streets, and observe the sallow faces of the men and women who +are lounging at the doors, or lolling from the windows. +Regard well the closeness of these crowded rooms, and the noisome +exhalations that rise from the drains and kennels; and then laud +the triumph of religion and morality, which condemns people to +drag their lives out in such stews as these, and makes it +criminal for them to eat or drink in the fresh air, or under the +clear sky. Here and there, from some half-opened window, +the loud shout of drunken revelry strikes upon the ear, and the +noise of oaths and quarrelling—the effect of the close and +heated atmosphere—is heard on all sides. See how the +men all rush to join the crowd that are making their way down the +street, and how loud the execrations of the mob become as they +draw nearer. They have assembled round a little knot of +constables, who have seized the stock-in-trade, heinously exposed +on Sunday, of some miserable walking-stick seller, who follows +clamouring for his property. The dispute grows warmer and +fiercer, until at last some of the more furious among the crowd, +rush forward to restore the goods to their owner. A general +conflict takes place; the sticks of the constables are exercised +in all directions; fresh assistance is procured; and half a dozen +of the assailants are conveyed to the station-house, struggling, +bleeding, and cursing. The case is taken to the +police-office on the following morning; and after a frightful +amount of perjury on both sides, the men are sent to prison for +resisting the officers, their families to the workhouse to keep +them from starving: and there they both remain for a month +afterwards, glorious trophies of the sanctified enforcement of +the Christian Sabbath. Add to such scenes as these, the +profligacy, idleness, drunkenness, and vice, that will be +committed to an extent which no man can foresee, on Monday, as an +atonement for the restraint of the preceding day; and you have a +very faint and imperfect picture of the religious effects of this +Sunday legislation, supposing it could ever be forced upon the +people.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>But let those who advocate the cause of fanaticism, reflect +well upon the probable issue of their endeavours. They may +by perseverance, succeed with Parliament. Let them ponder +on the probability of succeeding with the people. You may +deny the concession of a political question for a time, and a +nation will bear it patiently. Strike home to the comforts +of every man’s fireside—tamper with every man’s +freedom and liberty—and one month, one week, may rouse a +feeling abroad, which a king would gladly yield his crown to +quell, and a peer would resign his coronet to allay.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>It is the custom to affect a deference for the motives of +those who advocate these measures, and a respect for the feelings +by which they are actuated. They do not deserve it. +If they legislate in ignorance, they are criminal and dishonest; +if they do so with their eyes open, they commit wilful injustice; +in either case, they bring religion into contempt. But they +do <span class="GutSmall">NOT</span> legislate in +ignorance. Public prints, and public men, have pointed out +to them again and again, the consequences of their +proceedings. If they persist in thrusting themselves +forward, let those consequences rest upon their own heads, and +let them be content to stand upon their own merits.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>It may be asked, what motives can actuate a man who has so +little regard for the comfort of his fellow-beings, so little +respect for their wants and necessities, and so distorted a +notion of the beneficence of his Creator. I reply, an +envious, heartless, ill-conditioned dislike to seeing those whom +fortune has placed below him, cheerful and happy—an +intolerant confidence in his own high worthiness before God, and +a lofty impression of the demerits of others—pride, selfish +pride, as inconsistent with the spirit of Christianity itself, as +opposed to the example of its Founder upon earth.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>To these may be added another class of men—the stern and +gloomy enthusiasts, who would make earth a hell, and religion a +torment: men who, having wasted the earlier part of their lives +in dissipation and depravity, find themselves when scarcely past +its meridian, steeped to the neck in vice, and shunned like a +loathsome disease. Abandoned by the world, having nothing +to fall back upon, nothing to remember but time mis-spent, and +energies misdirected, they turn their eyes and not their thoughts +to Heaven, and delude themselves into the impious belief, that in +denouncing the lightness of heart of which they cannot partake, +and the rational pleasures from which they never derived +enjoyment, they are more than remedying the sins of their old +career, and—like the founders of monasteries and builders +of churches, in ruder days—establishing a good set claim +upon their Maker.</p> +<h2>III<br /> +AS IT MIGHT BE MADE</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> supporters of Sabbath Bills, +and more especially the extreme class of Dissenters, lay great +stress upon the declarations occasionally made by criminals from +the condemned cell or the scaffold, that to Sabbath-breaking they +attribute their first deviation from the path of rectitude; and +they point to these statements, as an incontestable proof of the +evil consequences which await a departure from that strict and +rigid observance of the Sabbath, which they uphold. I +cannot help thinking that in this, as in almost every other +respect connected with the subject, there is a considerable +degree of cant, and a very great deal of wilful blindness. +If a man be viciously disposed—and with very few +exceptions, not a man dies by the executioner’s hands, who +has not been in one way or other a most abandoned and profligate +character for many years—if a man be viciously disposed, +there is no doubt that he will turn his Sunday to bad account, +that he will take advantage of it, to dissipate with other bad +characters as vile as himself; and that in this way, he may trace +his first yielding to temptation, possibly his first commission +of crime, to an infringement of the Sabbath. But this would +be an argument against any holiday at all. If his holiday +had been Wednesday instead of Sunday, and he had devoted it to +the same improper uses, it would have been productive of the same +results. It is too much to judge of the character of a +whole people, by the confessions of the very worst members of +society. It is not fair, to cry down things which are +harmless in themselves, because evil-disposed men may turn them +to bad account. Who ever thought of deprecating the +teaching poor people to write, because some porter in a warehouse +had committed forgery? Or into what man’s head did it +ever enter, to prevent the crowding of churches, because it +afforded a temptation for the picking of pockets?</p> +<p> </p> +<p>When the Book of Sports, for allowing the peasantry of England +to divert themselves with certain games in the open air, on +Sundays, after evening service, was published by Charles the +First, it is needless to say the English people were +comparatively rude and uncivilised. And yet it is +extraordinary to how few excesses it gave rise, even in that day, +when men’s minds were not enlightened, or their passions +moderated, by the influence of education and refinement. +That some excesses were committed through its means, in the +remoter parts of the country, and that it was discontinued in +those places, in consequence, cannot be denied: but generally +speaking, there is no proof whatever on record, of its having had +any tendency to increase crime, or to lower the character of the +people.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>The Puritans of that time, were as much opposed to harmless +recreations and healthful amusements as those of the present day, +and it is amusing to observe that each in their generation, +advance precisely the same description of arguments. In the +British Museum, there is a curious pamphlet got up by the Agnews +of Charles’s time, entitled ‘A Divine Tragedie lately +acted, or a Collection of sundry memorable examples of +God’s Judgements upon Sabbath Breakers, and other like +Libertines in their unlawful Sports, happening within the realme +of England, in the compass only of two yeares last past, since +the Booke (of Sports) was published, worthy to be knowne and +considered of all men, especially such who are guilty of the +sinne, or archpatrons thereof.’ This amusing +document, contains some fifty or sixty veritable accounts of +balls of fire that fell into churchyards and upset the sporters, +and sporters that quarrelled, and upset one another, and so +forth: and among them is one anecdote containing an example of a +rather different kind, which I cannot resist the temptation of +quoting, as strongly illustrative of the fact, that this blinking +of the question has not even the recommendation of novelty.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>‘A woman about Northampton, the same day that she heard +the booke for sports read, went immediately, and having 3. pence +in her purse, hired a fellow to goe to the next towne to fetch a +Minstrell, who coming, she with others fell a dauncing, which +continued within night; at which time shee was got with child, +which at the birth shee murthering, was detected and apprehended, +and being converted before the justice, shee confessed it, and +withal told the occasion of it, saying it was her falling to +sport on the Sabbath, upon the reading of the Booke, so as for +this treble sinfull act, her presumptuous profaning of the +Sabbath, wh. brought her adultory and that murther. Shee +was according to the Law both of God and man, put to death. +Much sinne and misery followeth upon Sabbath-breaking.’</p> +<p> </p> +<p>It is needless to say, that if the young lady near Northampton +had ‘fallen to sport’ of such a dangerous +description, on any other day but Sunday, the first result would +probably have been the same: it never having been distinctly +shown that Sunday is more favourable to the propagation of the +human race than any other day in the week. The second +result—the murder of the child—does not speak very +highly for the amiability of her natural disposition; and the +whole story, supposing it to have had any foundation at all, is +about as much chargeable upon the Book of Sports, as upon the +Book of Kings. Such ‘sports’ have taken place +in Dissenting Chapels before now; but religion has never been +blamed in consequence; nor has it been proposed to shut up the +chapels on that account.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>The question, then, very fairly arises, whether we have any +reason to suppose that allowing games in the open air on Sundays, +or even providing the means of amusement for the humbler classes +of society on that day, would be hurtful and injurious to the +character and morals of the people.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>I was travelling in the west of England a summer or two back, +and was induced by the beauty of the scenery, and the seclusion +of the spot, to remain for the night in a small village, distant +about seventy miles from London. The next morning was +Sunday; and I walked out, towards the church. Groups of +people—the whole population of the little hamlet +apparently—were hastening in the same direction. +Cheerful and good-humoured congratulations were heard on all +sides, as neighbours overtook each other, and walked on in +company. Occasionally I passed an aged couple, whose +married daughter and her husband were loitering by the side of +the old people, accommodating their rate of walking to their +feeble pace, while a little knot of children hurried on before; +stout young labourers in clean round frocks; and buxom girls with +healthy, laughing faces, were plentifully sprinkled about in +couples, and the whole scene was one of quiet and tranquil +contentment, irresistibly captivating. The morning was +bright and pleasant, the hedges were green and blooming, and a +thousand delicious scents were wafted on the air, from the wild +flowers which blossomed on either side of the footpath. The +little church was one of those venerable simple buildings which +abound in the English counties; half overgrown with moss and ivy, +and standing in the centre of a little plot of ground, which, but +for the green mounds with which it was studded, might have passed +for a lovely meadow. I fancied that the old clanking bell +which was now summoning the congregation together, would seem +less terrible when it rung out the knell of a departed soul, than +I had ever deemed possible before—that the sound would tell +only of a welcome to calmness and rest, amidst the most peaceful +and tranquil scene in nature.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>I followed into the church—a low-roofed building with +small arched windows, through which the sun’s rays streamed +upon a plain tablet on the opposite wall, which had once recorded +names, now as undistinguishable on its worn surface, as were the +bones beneath, from the dust into which they had resolved. +The impressive service of the Church of England was +spoken—not merely <i>read</i>—by a grey-headed +minister, and the responses delivered by his auditors, with an +air of sincere devotion as far removed from affectation or +display, as from coldness or indifference. The psalms were +accompanied by a few instrumental performers, who were stationed +in a small gallery extending across the church at the lower end, +over the door: and the voices were led by the clerk, who, it was +evident, derived no slight pride and gratification from this +portion of the service. The discourse was plain, +unpretending, and well adapted to the comprehension of the +hearers. At the conclusion of the service, the villagers +waited in the churchyard, to salute the clergyman as he passed; +and two or three, I observed, stepped aside, as if communicating +some little difficulty, and asking his advice. This, to +guess from the homely bows, and other rustic expressions of +gratitude, the old gentleman readily conceded. He seemed +intimately acquainted with the circumstances of all his +parishioners; for I heard him inquire after one man’s +youngest child, another man’s wife, and so forth; and that +he was fond of his joke, I discovered from overhearing him ask a +stout, fresh-coloured young fellow, with a very pretty +bashful-looking girl on his arm, ‘when those banns were to +be put up?’—an inquiry which made the young fellow +more fresh-coloured, and the girl more bashful, and which, +strange to say, caused a great many other girls who were standing +round, to colour up also, and look anywhere but in the faces of +their male companions.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>As I approached this spot in the evening about half an hour +before sunset, I was surprised to hear the hum of voices, and +occasionally a shout of merriment from the meadow beyond the +churchyard; which I found, when I reached the stile, to be +occasioned by a very animated game of cricket, in which the boys +and young men of the place were engaged, while the females and +old people were scattered about: some seated on the grass +watching the progress of the game, and others sauntering about in +groups of two or three, gathering little nosegays of wild roses +and hedge flowers. I could not but take notice of one old +man in particular, with a bright-eyed grand-daughter by his side, +who was giving a sunburnt young fellow some instructions in the +game, which he received with an air of profound deference, but +with an occasional glance at the girl, which induced me to think +that his attention was rather distracted from the old +gentleman’s narration of the fruits of his +experience. When it was his turn at the wicket, too, there +was a glance towards the pair every now and then, which the old +grandfather very complacently considered as an appeal to his +judgment of a particular hit, but which a certain blush in the +girl’s face, and a downcast look of the bright eye, led me +to believe was intended for somebody else than the old +man,—and understood by somebody else, too, or I am much +mistaken.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>I was in the very height of the pleasure which the +contemplation of this scene afforded me, when I saw the old +clergyman making his way towards us. I trembled for an +angry interruption to the sport, and was almost on the point of +crying out, to warn the cricketers of his approach; he was so +close upon me, however, that I could do nothing but remain still, +and anticipate the reproof that was preparing. What was my +agreeable surprise to see the old gentleman standing at the +stile, with his hands in his pockets, surveying the whole scene +with evident satisfaction! And how dull I must have been, +not to have known till my friend the grandfather (who, +by-the-bye, said he had been a wonderful cricketer in his time) +told me, that it was the clergyman himself who had established +the whole thing: that it was his field they played in; and that +it was he who had purchased stumps, bats, ball, and all!</p> +<p> </p> +<p>It is such scenes as this, I would see near London, on a +Sunday evening. It is such men as this, who would do more +in one year to make people properly religious, cheerful, and +contented, than all the legislation of a century could ever +accomplish.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>It will be said—it has been very often—that it +would be matter of perfect impossibility to make amusements and +exercises succeed in large towns, which may be very well adapted +to a country population. Here, again, we are called upon to +yield to bare assertions on matters of belief and opinion, as if +they were established and undoubted facts. That there is a +wide difference between the two cases, no one will be prepared to +dispute; that the difference is such as to prevent the +application of the same principle to both, no reasonable man, I +think, will be disposed to maintain. The great majority of +the people who make holiday on Sunday now, are industrious, +orderly, and well-behaved persons. It is not unreasonable +to suppose that they would be no more inclined to an abuse of +pleasures provided for them, than they are to an abuse of the +pleasures they provide for themselves; and if any people, for +want of something better to do, resort to criminal practices on +the Sabbath as at present observed, no better remedy for the evil +can be imagined, than giving them the opportunity of doing +something which will amuse them, and hurt nobody else.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>The propriety of opening the British Museum to respectable +people on Sunday, has lately been the subject of some +discussion. I think it would puzzle the most austere of the +Sunday legislators to assign any valid reason for opposing so +sensible a proposition. The Museum contains rich specimens +from all the vast museums and repositories of Nature, and rare +and curious fragments of the mighty works of art, in bygone ages: +all calculated to awaken contemplation and inquiry, and to tend +to the enlightenment and improvement of the people. But +attendants would be necessary, and a few men would be employed +upon the Sabbath. They certainly would; but how many? +Why, if the British Museum, and the National Gallery, and the +Gallery of Practical Science, and every other exhibition in +London, from which knowledge is to be derived and information +gained, were to be thrown open on a Sunday afternoon, not fifty +people would be required to preside over the whole: and it would +take treble the number to enforce a Sabbath bill in any three +populous parishes.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>I should like to see some large field, or open piece of +ground, in every outskirt of London, exhibiting each Sunday +evening on a larger scale, the scene of the little country +meadow. I should like to see the time arrive, when a +man’s attendance to his religious duties might be left to +that religious feeling which most men possess in a greater or +less degree, but which was never forced into the breast of any +man by menace or restraint. I should like to see the time +when Sunday might be looked forward to, as a recognised day of +relaxation and enjoyment, and when every man might feel, what few +men do now, that religion is not incompatible with rational +pleasure and needful recreation.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>How different a picture would the streets and public places +then present! The museums, and repositories of scientific +and useful inventions, would be crowded with ingenious mechanics +and industrious artisans, all anxious for information, and all +unable to procure it at any other time. The spacious +saloons would be swarming with practical men: humble in +appearance, but destined, perhaps, to become the greatest +inventors and philosophers of their age. The labourers who +now lounge away the day in idleness and intoxication, would be +seen hurrying along, with cheerful faces and clean attire, not to +the close and smoky atmosphere of the public-house but to the +fresh and airy fields. Fancy the pleasant scene. +Throngs of people, pouring out from the lanes and alleys of the +metropolis, to various places of common resort at some short +distance from the town, to join in the refreshing sports and +exercises of the day—the children gambolling in crowds upon +the grass, the mothers looking on, and enjoying themselves the +little game they seem only to direct; other parties strolling +along some pleasant walks, or reposing in the shade of the +stately trees; others again intent upon their different +amusements. Nothing should be heard on all sides, but the +sharp stroke of the bat as it sent the ball skimming along the +ground, the clear ring of the quoit, as it struck upon the iron +peg: the noisy murmur of many voices, and the loud shout of mirth +and delight, which would awaken the echoes far and wide, till the +fields rung with it. The day would pass away, in a series +of enjoyments which would awaken no painful reflections when +night arrived; for they would be calculated to bring with them, +only health and contentment. The young would lose that +dread of religion, which the sour austerity of its professors too +often inculcates in youthful bosoms; and the old would find less +difficulty in persuading them to respect its observances. +The drunken and dissipated, deprived of any excuse for their +misconduct, would no longer excite pity but disgust. Above +all, the more ignorant and humble class of men, who now partake +of many of the bitters of life, and taste but few of its sweets, +would naturally feel attachment and respect for that code of +morality, which, regarding the many hardships of their station, +strove to alleviate its rigours, and endeavoured to soften its +asperity.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>This is what Sunday might be made, and what it might be made +without impiety or profanation. The wise and beneficent +Creator who places men upon earth, requires that they shall +perform the duties of that station of life to which they are +called, and He can never intend that the more a man strives to +discharge those duties, the more he shall be debarred from +happiness and enjoyment. Let those who have six days in the +week for all the world’s pleasures, appropriate the seventh +to fasting and gloom, either for their own sins or those of other +people, if they like to bewail them; but let those who employ +their six days in a worthier manner, devote their seventh to a +different purpose. Let divines set the example of true +morality: preach it to their flocks in the morning, and dismiss +them to enjoy true rest in the afternoon; and let them select for +their text, and let Sunday legislators take for their motto, the +words which fell from the lips of that Master, whose precepts +they misconstrue, and whose lessons they pervert—‘The +Sabbath was made for man, and not man to serve the +Sabbath.’</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUNDAY UNDER THREE HEADS***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 922-h.htm or 922-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/9/2/922 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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