Observance of the Sabbath in Scotland. 1 57 



an inconvenience not less disadvantageous to 

 the occupier of the lands, than it is a drawback 

 to the beauty of the country. Hedges in tatters 

 always, in my mind, bespeak inhabitants in rags. 



Sunday, above all other days, exhibits the 

 manners, while the religious observances and 

 offices of a people develope their morals ; and 

 the passing traveller is enabled to collect evi- 

 dence on which to ascertain the degree of 

 civilization to which they may have attained. 



The impressions on the present were very 

 different to the emotions with which we were 

 inspired on the preceding Sunday. The attend- 

 ance on public worship, and the general regard 

 to the decencies of the day in Scotland, are 

 truly edifying: gratitude and humanity both 

 conspire and assist in the due observance of the 

 sabbath ; for while the brute creation is allowed 

 by man to rest, the incense of adoration is due 

 from him to that omniscient unbounded pre- 

 sence, whose beneficence bestows all earthly 

 benefits here, and encourages him to hope for 

 more substantial and durable blessings hereafter! 

 The Scottish peasant, though slow, cold, and 

 phlegmatic, in the ordinary affairs of life, is 

 active, warm, and zealous, in the discharge of 

 his religious observances, which he conscien- 



