DALE CLERGYMEN. 107 



have stated may help to explain one of the 

 peculiarities of the dale people which has 

 always puzzled me ; I allude to their feeble 

 religious feeling, their want of poetical senti- 

 ment, and of the imaginative faculty admitted, 

 I think, by you in our conversation at Santon 

 Bridge feelings these and sentiments which 

 we are disposed to associate with mountain 

 scenery, and which we so often find so asso- 

 ciated, whether in the instance of our own, 

 the Scottish Highlanders, the Vaudois of the 

 Vallais, or the Nestorian Christians of the 

 Chaldean mountains. 



PISCATOR. The subject is a delicate, as well 

 as an obscure and painful one. The Dale- 

 clergymen, in most instances, have been Dale- 

 men, who have entered the church as a business 

 for maintenance. Poorly paid, as they com- 

 monly are, and withdrawn from the society 

 of educated men, is it surprising that they 

 should fall into the habits of those with whom 

 they associate, attend more to farming than 

 to learning, to the culture of their land than of 

 themselves ; and if not so occupied, do worse 

 in their idleness? Unless there be strength 

 of character and worthy energy with resolve, 



