264 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



the weather would continue favourable until Monday, 

 and also, it is to be assumed, that the captain of the 

 * Flirt ' would be content to wait till then. Fortunately 

 this turned out to be the case, and the inhabitants did 

 not suffer from the rigidity of their Sabbatarianism. 

 It must be admitted that this instance of the strict 

 observance of the old Jewish law has been surpassed 

 in absurdity, and that, too, within times recent enough. 

 Folks have been punished in Scotland for saving the 

 lives of animals on Sunday ; and warned not to offend 

 again, lest punishment should befall them, for saving 

 the lives of a shipwrecked crew. In one case such a 

 crew was suffered to perish that the Sabbath might 

 not be broken. But it was supposed that this barbarism 

 had passed away in great part. It is, however, a far 

 cry to wild St. Kilda. We must assume that the 

 minister who headed (save the mark !) the St. Kildians 

 in this matter was either native to the isle, or received 

 his religious training half a century ago in some 

 Scottish seminary where Sabbatarianism of the old 

 type was rampant. Yet we cannot but recall how, 

 quite recently, a minister in a Scottish region not 

 quite so wild and desolate as St. Kilda rebuked his 

 people for reaping on Sunday, and the weight of the 

 Queen's opinion had to be quoted against his before 

 they could be encouraged to continue the practice. 

 Although one does not exactly know how the Queen 

 came to be an authority on such questions, she cer- 

 tainly showed much more judgment than the minister 

 in this instance. He and his reverend brother at 



