132 SALMONIA. [FIFTH DAY. 



when they appear to me ridiculous ; and I shall still 

 less do so in a case where your authority is against 

 me ; and I have no taste for undergoing persecution, 

 when the cause is a better one. I now remember, 

 that I have often heard of the extreme severity with 

 which the sabbath discipline is kept in Scotland. 

 Can you give us the reason of this ? 



HAL. I am not sufficiently read in the Church 

 History of Scotland to give the cause historically; 

 but I think it can hardly be doubted, that it is 

 connected with the intense feelings of the early 

 Covenanters, and their hatred with respect to all the 

 forms and institutes of the Church of Eome, the ritual 

 of which makes the Sunday more a day of innocent 

 recreation than severe discipline. 



PUTS. Yet the disciples of Calvin, at Geneva, 

 who, I suppose, must have hated the pope as much 

 as their brethren of Scotland, do not so rigidly 

 observe the Sunday ; and I remember having been 

 invited by a very religious and respectable Genevese 

 to a shooting party on that day. 



HAL. I think climate and the imitative nature of 

 man modify this cause abroad. Geneva is a little 

 state, in a brighter climate than Scotland, almost 

 surrounded by Catholics, and the habits of the 

 Trench and Savoyards must influence the people. 

 The Scotch, with more severity and simplicity of 



