1803.] 
there was fome difficulty in obtaining them, 
by gravely afluring the poft-mafters that he 
was the avant-courier to a foreiyn Am- 
baflador who wa’s' then on the road with a 
negotiation of the higheft importance! 
This ttory availed us nothing here: ex 
nibilo nibil fit: there is not a horfe in the 
ftable.— 
Nine o’clock, (evening )—-We have been 
Tounging about the town, where evéry one, 
male and female, is dreffed in ‘his beft 
cloathes, and feems to be going to, or 
coming from, church. We have be<n into 
the College; mafs was performing, and we 
remained there half an hour, or more: the 
loud finging, or, I am rather difpofed' to 
call it, the lufty bellowing, of the chaunters 
affailed our unaccuftomed ears fo violently, 
and a peep at the plalm-book threatened us 
with fuch a long-protraé&ted peal, that we 
thought it prudent to retire. From’ the 
College we went into L’Eglife de Notre 
Dame, where a great many pious devotees 
were kneeling before the painted idols, 
which were profufely diftributed about the 
walls, 
I know very well that it is the fathion in 
England'to believe, orto affe& the belief, at 
Jea(t, that Religion is totally negleét.d and 
“¢ defpifed of men”? throughout the territo~ 
ries of this infidel Republic. Such {weeping 
accufations are rafh and indécorous; and 
T fulpect, that if thofe only among us 
who are without fin in this refpect, tad 
take 1 the liberty to caft ftones, much fewer 
would have been levelled. Religion is 
an affair of the heart: I fhould be forry' to 
fufpeét every man of being indifferent to 
its duties, and dead to the feelings of de- 
votion, who is not very regular in his 
attendance on @ivine fervice; nor am I 
fufficiently charitable or unfufpicious to 
give every man credit for fuper-eminent 
piety towards God, or excéffive benevo- 
lence towards man, becaule of his exem- 
plary punétuality at charch. Ih this 
comtry, the outward form of religion is 
certainly fufficiently manifelt: what fub- 
fiance it may have, 1 know not: “the 
churches into which we have entered, are 
as well attended, for aught I fee, as 
thofe of London, or of any other place: 
our opportunities for remark, however, 
have pot been numerous, and T'may be mif- 
taken. It is very true, that to ‘ keep holy 
the Sabbath-day,” by defifting from 1a- 
bour, and fhutting up fhop, is not, as in 
England, made’ compulfory here: the 
churches indeed are all opened, Lut it is not 
confidered difgraceful to pafs-over to the 
, other fide.’ Ona Sunday, therefore, Paris 
prefents rather a whimfical appearance: 
An Excurfion through France to Geneva. 
il 
half a fcoré fhops together are religioufly 
kept fhut, the mmates retire from the 
buitle of worldly concerns, and devote 
themfélves to holy contemplation. The 
two or three next neighbours, perhaps lefs 
pioufly difpofed, fuffer their jewellery to 
{fparkle, or their gay ribbanis to flaunt, as 
ufual, at the window. ‘The found of fome 
folitary hatnmer is heard at the black- 
fmith’s, and thé poor labourer, with a wife 
and feven or eight children, find’s that to 
him the Sabbath is no day of reft: the 
hebdomadal recurrence of that day ftills 
not the cravings of hunger, and foftens 
not the bitternefs of cold’ 
Such, I believe, is corre&tly the ftate 
of France with refye& to its’ outward ob- 
fervances of religious rites’: it will not be 
amifs to-confiJer, briefly, the ftate of 
"England in this refpect; had we pulled 
out the beam’ from our own eye, we might 
have feen more clearly to have taken'away 
the mote fiom our brother’s.. Sabbath- 
breaking, as the offence is technically de- 
nominated, is punifhable by the munici- 
pal-law of England; I certainly mean not 
to difpute the jultnefs and propriety of 
expelling the money-changers from’ the 
Temple of God. I certainly mean not 
to ridicule the prohibition of all fecular 
bufineis on the Sabbath-day, on that day 
which we are told was hallowed by the 
Almighty hinfeif; but one may be per- 
mitted to fmile at the inconfiltent fpirit' of 
our regulations, the partiality with which 
they are enforced, or the indifference 
with which they are attended to. Ifa 
man is journeying’on the Sunday in Eng- 
land, howeyer important be the occafion 
which calls him, fhould his horfe lofe a. 
fhoe, or his camiage break down, he 
would find it extremely difficult, if not 
impoflible, to obtain the affitance of a 
workman. In a capricious and uncertain 
harvelt-fcafon, fhould the farmer be anx- 
ious to preferve the fruits of his whole 
year’s labour from impending injury, and 
perhaps deftruction, the greateft probabi- 
lity, in the firft place, is, that he could 
zet no help from his Jabourers: Should 
he, however, to his altonifhment, fuc- 
ceed, he would, in the next place, be a 
marked man by the clergyman of his pa- 
rifh, his neighbours would be afraid of 
him, and fire from Heaven .would be 
called down—or, what would be a fubjeé& 
of far more ferious apprehenfion—fire 
from eatth would, perhaps, be brought 
up to confume his devoted property. In 
fhort, it does not appear, in all cafes, to 
be lawful to do good on the Sabbath-day. 
But, at the time that we are thus con- 
Bea . fcientioufly 
