130 SALMONIA. 



likewise to be a day of worship and thanks- 

 giving to the great cause of all the benefits 

 and blessings we enjoy in this life, for which 

 we can never sufficiently express our grati- 

 tude. 



Poiet. — I cannot see what harm there 

 can be in pursuing an amusement on a Sun- 

 day, which you yourself have called innocent, 

 and which is apostolic: nor do I know a 

 more appropriate way of returning thanks to 

 the Almighty Cause of all being, than in 

 examining and wondering at his works in 

 that great temple of nature, whose canopy 

 is the sky; and where all the beings and 

 elements around us are as it were proclaim- 

 ing the power and wisdom of Deity, 



Hal. — I cannot see how the exercise of 

 fishing can add to your devotional feelings ; 

 but independent of this, you employ a ser- 

 vant to carry your net and gaff, and he, at 

 least, has a right to rest on this one day. 

 But even if you could perfectly satisfy your- 

 self as to the abstracted correctness of the 

 practice, the habits of the country in which 

 we now are, form an insurmountable obstacle 



