188 HINTS ON ANGLING. 



with which Rome engrafts the forms, and symbols, 

 and sanctions of our faith, on all the occurrences and 

 ongoings of daily life. She lays her hand on every 

 thing. Nothing ever escapes her watchful, sleepless eye. 

 The habits, thoughts, feelings, traffickings, pursuits, 

 business, pleasures, affections, and even the very amuse- 

 ments of the people, are all more or less under her 

 guidance, or unseen influence. Every act of common 

 life bears some mark of her perpetual presence; every 

 passing circumstance calls to mind her unceasing protru- 

 sion of things sacred. In fact, religion is constantly kept 

 in sight; the great facts and mysteries of revelation are 

 perpetually displayed before the public eye. No act of 

 ordinary life, not the slightest, is performed without 

 some silent gesture, or faint vocal expression of religious 

 sentiment and feeling. The commonest instruments, the 

 merest articles of furniture, the veriest trumpery, acknow- 

 ledge some special dedication, or bear some holy badge. 

 The crucifix sad emblem of a dreadful tragedy is 

 worn on the person, or engraven on the commonest 

 articles, or placed in some conspicuous situation in the 

 house, or by the way-side. The sign of the cross is 

 devoutly made on stated occasions, and on any sudden 

 emergencv of surprise, or pain, or pleasure; and the 

 faith of the French peasant is thus preserved perpetually 

 present to his mind and heart. 



It is the prevalent feeling in England, and in most 

 Protestant countries, to consider representations and 

 emblems and signs of this description, as indirectly 

 tending to idolatry and superstition; and, therefore, all 

 external signs and marks of the Christian faith even 

 those silent exhortations, and remembrances, and per- 

 suasives, which the early Christian church most undoubt- 



