254 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



9 



ic poison as that which is given off by burning fuel ; and which, 

 when it has risen into the air of an apartment in a certain pro- 

 portion, begins to act as an oppressive soporific, and may in par- 

 ticular cases, from want of free ventilation, accumulate to such 

 an extent, as to occasion lasting, and even dangerous indisposi- 

 tion. Such architects, accordingly, construct apartments of the 

 proper height and shape, and with apertures in the sides and 

 top, to facilitate a communication with the external atmosphere. 

 But how is it in the country? Let the small dormitories of 

 most country inns, the cage-like dimensions of school-houses, the 

 low, flat ceilings of townhalls, and even churches, give the 

 reply ; to say nothing of the contracted apartments of the farm- 

 er's own dwelling, for which no apology can be found in the 

 costliness of a ground-plot, or the scarcity of building materials. 

 Many are the laborers in the field, it is to be feared, whose sleep 

 is shorn of more than half its refreshment, from a disregard to 

 the fixed relations they sustain to the atmosphere. Many have 

 been the speakers who fondly hoped to move their fellow-men 

 by the force of their arguments, or to delight them with the play- 

 fulness of their wit, who have found, when they rose to the 

 task in some fiat-roofed, closely shut hall, that an unexpected 

 extinguisher to their intellects was on both themselves and their 

 auditors. Many a highly talented teacher of sacred things, 

 whose people, in spite of his and their best endeavors, have 

 sunk into torpor and listlessness, would do better to change 

 some of his meetings into a plain illustration of those laws of 

 nature, and of our physical constitution, which would enable us 

 to enjoy without self-injury the commonest blessings of Provi- 

 dence, at the same time that they place us in a better position 

 for appreciating the higher truths that affect our moral destiny. 

 For this reason, I confess that I have been disposed to look with 

 more favor, than many appear to do, upon those religious meet- 

 ings which are occasionally held in the open air, in the streets 

 of London and Edinburgh, and in the fields and forests of our 

 own land. They are certainly favorable to the highest and 

 clearest efforts of speakers, no less than to the deepest and most 

 lasting impressions of hearers ; and such performances can hard- 

 ly be brought into comparison with those confused and fugitive 



