490 THE FOREST AND THE FIELD. 



the seventh day, nor can I see any perceptible 

 difference in the whole face of Nature. Do not 

 the buds unfold and display the gorgeous colours 

 of the flowers'? do not the birds sing and chirp 

 as joyously on the Sabbath as upon any other 

 day? and is it not only rational to believe that 

 the great Supreme Power who endued them with 

 instinct will not be displeased to see mortals, whom 

 he has endowed with reason, happy in the enjoy- 

 ment of those means of recreation which His 

 providence has given them ? 



What a contrast Sunday on the Continent pre- 

 sents to the seventh day in this country, which our 

 ancestors used to call " Free and merrie England!" 

 Forsooth, times are changed ; for in the present 

 age we are the slaves of narrow-minded prejudices, 

 and it has become the fashion to work six days in 

 the week and to mope the seventh, when an 

 atmosphere of sadness seems to pervade the land ; 

 and from the gloomy appearance presented on 

 every side, it might be imagined that a plague 

 was hovering over it. The only gathering-places 

 are gloomy churches and garish gin-palaces: in 



