THE DEVIL'S LIMEKILN. 49 



vast cone of granite, almost insulated from the shore. 

 The fishermen and inhabitants believe that this rock, 

 if it could be turned over into the limekiln, would 

 exactly fit and close it. Hence they have named it 

 the Shutter Kock. 



The comparison of this deep pit with an orifice at 

 the bottom to a limekiln is striking and felicitous ; 

 but why it should bear the devil's name I cannot 

 understand. The habit, which prevails in all parts of 

 the country, of associating the great adversary of God 

 and man with those phenomena of nature which are 

 vast, or grand, or terrific, is both preposterous and 

 repulsive. It originated probably in the darkness of 

 the Middle Ages, when mankind were ready to attri- 

 bute to Satan operations with which he had nought 

 to do, yet strangely forgot his power as the great 

 tempter to sin, and overlooked the real work in which 

 he is ever engaged, of " blinding the minds of them 

 which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel 

 of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto 

 them" (2 Cor. iv. 4). 



We threw ourselves down on the purple heath and 

 the soft beds of wild thyme, that covered the broad 

 slope between the limekiln and the edge of the cliffs. 

 The sun was pouring down his fervid rays upon us as 

 we reclined, and his disk of brightness was reflected 

 in thousands of rippling waves, from the wide expanse 

 of sea that lay stretched between us and the undu- 

 lating line of blue coast opposite. Just over against 

 us, some five leagues distant, was the promontory of 



