THB CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 99 



alike bear testimony to the fact that some mighty im- 

 pulse of religious zeal once animated the multitude in 

 the execution of works which are now considered as 

 almost superhuman.* It would be well if something 

 more of this enthusiasm in the cause of God pervaded the 

 mass of those who are now callei Christians. We should 

 neither then want places of public devotion, where there 

 is a superabundant population, nor would those which 

 are built lack a due attendance of worshippers. If 

 more of the feeling which led our Cornish ancestors to 

 these hills, although to celebrate a superstitious and 

 perhaps idolatrous worship, were diffused through the 

 community at large, we should see less of that spirit of 

 indolence which is so prevalent in regard to the public 

 homage which is due to the Almighty. It may be that 



* No mere exertion of arbitrary power acting upon the mul- 

 titude could have eflfected these wonders. The supposition is 

 altogether absurd. We might as well suppose the magnificent 

 edifices of what are termed the Gothic ages, were the result of 

 the despotical will of the Fiince and the servile state of the peo- 

 ple. But history confutes this supposition, and leaves us no al- 

 ternative but that of concluding that the labor employed in these 

 structures was voluntary. \\ hat a strange reflection is it that 

 to superstition we owe those monuments, which true religion 

 finds itself now too feeble to imitate, and this even with a far- 

 greater population I 



