FIFTH DAY.] 8 A BE A TH DA Y. 131 



be a day of worship and thanksgiving to the Great 

 Cause of all the benefits and blessings we enjoy in 

 this life, for wliich we can never sufficiently express 

 our gratitude. 



POIET. I cannot see what harm there can be in 

 pursuing an amusement on a Sunday, wliich you 

 yourself have called innocent, and which is apostolic : 

 nor do I know a more appropriate way of returning 

 thanks to the Almighty Cause of all being, than in 

 examining and wondering at his works in that great 

 temple of nature, whose canopy is the sky, and 

 where all the beings and elements around us are as 

 it were proclaiming the power and wisdom of Deity. 



HAL. I cannot see how the exercise of fishing 

 can add to your devotional feelings; but, indepen- 

 dent of this, you employ a servant to carry your net 

 and gaff, and he, at least, has a right to rest on this 

 one day. But even if you could perfectly satisfy 

 yourself as to the abstracted correctness of the 

 practice, the habits of the country in which we now 

 are, form an insurmountable obstacle to the pursuit 

 of the amusement : by indulging in it, you would 

 excite the indignation of the Highland peasants, and 

 might perhaps expiate the offence by a compulsory 

 ablution in the river. 



POIET. I give up the point : I make it a rule 

 never to shock the prejudices of any person, even 



K2 



