THE POETIC SPIRIT 203 



the women had their housework to do and dinner to 

 cook ; the men liked a long rest on a Sunday morn- 

 ing, and did not care to wear their best suit of clothes 

 the whole day. These all flocked to the afternoon or 

 evening services ; but alas for the little ones ! they 

 were all packed off to chapel in the morning. Again 

 and again on taking my seat in a chapel at the early 

 service I found myself in a congregation chiefly com- 

 posed of children. What can be the effect on the 

 child mind of such an interior and of such a service 

 the intolerable sermon, the rude singing, the prayers 

 of the man who with " odious familiarity " button- 

 holes the Deity and repeats his "And now, O 

 Lord " at every second sentence the whole squalid 

 symbolism ! One can but say that if any imagina- 

 tion, any sense of beauty, any feeling of wonder and 

 reverence at the mystery of life and nature had sur- 

 vived in their young minds it must inevitably perish 

 in such an atmosphere. 



