SCIENCE OF THE WILDS, POETUY OF SPORT. 189 



points to Adam or to one great deluo'e, nor 

 that reveals a vestige of fossilized man. The 

 longer we live, the wider the boasted good 

 of education, and the much-lauded increase of 

 civilization and learning, tlie more schism and 

 dissent and discontent increase, till where there 

 was one seceder from what was once called ^' the 

 established faith," dissent now numbers many 

 thousands. The schoolmaster has certainly been 

 abroad, l3ut he is all abroad now, for his teacli- 

 ing has taught hypocrisy, and, with a certain 

 class, utter contempt for the oath sworn on 

 what used to be called the Holy Bible. As a 

 county magistrate, I am most reluctantly forced 

 to confess that the working-classes, generally, — that 

 is, the lowest class of labouring men and women, 

 — set no more store by an oath, when they wish 

 to prove an aliJji for a friend in trouble, than they 

 do by the sighing of an idle wind. 



