Our Yorkshire Spangles and Norwich Yelloio. 35 



scenes, much towards making them feel that there was 

 a time for all things, and that the Sabbath most 

 assuredly belonged to the Lord their God. The exhi- 

 bition and breeding of these beautiful birds is certainly 

 a pursuit to be encouraged ; and I believe that if the 

 religious portion of the community would only encourage 

 these and such like innocent and rational modes of 

 amusement among the working classes, the latter would 

 not be long insensible to the kindness and sympathy 

 shown in their behalf. By degrees they would be re- 

 claimed from the haunts of vice and crime ; by degrees 

 they would imitate the example of those above them ; 

 by degrees they would be found filling our churches 

 and keeping the Sabbath, as it should be kept by every 

 man professing to be a Christian, " holy unto the Lord." 

 As William Cowper truly sings : 



♦* Religion does not censure or exclude 

 Unnumbered pleasures harmlessly pursued ; 

 To study, culture, and with artful toil 

 To meliorate and turn the stubborn soil; 

 To give dissimilar yet fruitful lands 

 The grain or herb, or plant that each demands ; 

 To cherish virtue in an humble state, 

 And share the joys your bounty may create : 



These, these are arts pursued without a crime. 

 That leave no stain upon the wing of time." 



