32 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLANJJ. 



of the throne, which they have ground to powder and thrown 

 to the free winds, was a part of the very idea of the being and 

 government of the God in whom they had been instructed to 

 believe. Would they not be fools still to worship such an 

 idol of the imagination ? And what then ? The natural and 

 fearful reaction here also, from torpidity and stupid delusion, 

 which a little knowledge must provoke. And which is best 

 a dead, superstitious morality, or a live, working-onward 

 infidelity a slow poison, swallowed in a sugar-coated bolus, 

 or an active, painful, purging black-draught ? Let us yet 

 hope (for years are but hours w T ith a nation), that repudiation 

 of lying forms and ignoble use of the name of God, and His 

 Holy Word is but a symptom which precedes a return of 

 healthy fidelity to the truth of God. 



To return to the man that I mentioned as being more 

 thoughtful and fond of argument than the others, and who for 

 that reason I have reserved to speak of more particularly, as 

 affording a more tangible illustration of English popular skep 

 ticism and agrarianism of the day. 



He was born near Sheffield, had been a good while in the 

 United States, and now returned to England, thinking that 

 some particular art, in smelting, I believe, that he had acquired, 

 would be more valued there. He had certainly been a serious 

 and constant thinker, but his information was limited, super 

 ficial, and inaccurate, and he was better at quibbling and 

 picking inconsistencies, than at sustained and thorough rea 

 soning. He was a man that would have a strong influence 

 with a certain kind of honest people, not able to think far 

 originally ; and as his activity would infuse itself into them, 

 and he was generally in earnest after something, his influence 

 might possibly in the end be more good than bad. No one 

 could sleep easily, at all events, while he was near them (as, 



