of the unprivileged mass.

The fact is,' he added as they were left nearly alone, I am an enquirer on the very subject with which you seem to identify yourself, and any assistance that you can affore I shall be thankful for.'

With much cordiality of manner, the stranger immediately commenced explaining to him his own mission, its origin and results. He was collecting particulars on which to ground an appeal for increased facilities of spiritual instruction for this neglected class of men, without any direct reference to Sabbath observance, but he had found the crying evil of a desecrated Lord's day meeting him at every step, and forcing on his mind the conviction that all efforts would be vain until it was done away with. It was no part of his instructions to propose an appeal to the legislature on this point; but he had done so, and his suggestion had been met in a way that surprised him. Philander mentioned the grounds on which they seemed to crave it, partly as a matter of right, and partly as an occasion for sensual indulgence. This was admitted; but the plain fact was also pointed out that in their present state they were wholly debarred from any possible participation in the instruction sought to be provided. Theirs was the case of a man heavily ironed, who if at

liberty, might not choose to walk in the direction you wished; but who, whatever his will might be, was physcially incapable of so doing until the manacles should be knocked off. 'Meet me tomorrow, and I will bring you among some who shall explain in their own way, far better than I can do, the detail of what you have this day seen in dim and dubious outline.'

CHAPTER VIII.

GLEANINGS AMONG THE BOATMEN.

CRIME has gradations: they lead like the rounds of a ladder, by easy, imperceptible progress from the solid ground below to the height whence man, being disappointed in his purpose of a safe descent by the late discovery that its summit rests on no adequate support, falls headlong. Having placed his foot on the lowest round, he feels an unaccountable, and ere long an irresistble propensity to go further. In the boy, true miniature of man, you may detect this tendency whenever he is placed within reach of a material ladder; strengthening too in proportion to the urgency of the prohibition received, for sin takes occasion by the commandment; and what the Apostle Paul feelingly describes touching the

evil that wrought within him in reference to the tenth, holds good of all the rest. Of none more than the fourth. To keep holy the seventh day is what God enjoins: to pollute it more than any of the remaining six is what man delights in. Why should it be so? In the case of benefactions conferred by some high potentate of earth, we do not find this backwardness to mingle at court with the favoured few, to renew the pledge of loyal attachment, and to be in the way of any new honours the royal patron may from time to time be pleased to confer. This line of conduct is certainly the rule; its reverse the exception, all the world over: therefore we conclude that some powerful impulsive enmity against God and his service resides in the depths of man's heart, outweighing what, in all other instances are the dictates alike of natural feeling and of self interest, rendering the general rule the exception here, and vice versa.

The graduating scale is brought into practice chiefly where education has introduced, if not the principle yet the habit of decently observing the Sabbath's rest there almost every round of the ladder has its occupant, each measuring his progress, not by the number of steps already taken, but by those which he flatters himself he never

shall be induced to take. Happily, the extreme is unattainable in England: no theatres are open, no public assemblies held, nor games and sports and shows legalized, as in the continental lands; and if there be some who would openly run to such excess, and who in their private houses proceed as far as existing laws permit, the bulk of well-ordered society stands plainly opposed to such glaring desecration, gathering also food for selfapplause from the more forward zeal of their neighbours in casting down the way-marks that God hath set up. Still, it cannot be denied that the tendency of men's minds is removed further from, not to return towards the starting point; and the principle seeks to make its way covertly under the guise of a benevolent concern for the less affluent classes; a desire to render the season of rest and devotion what they call, the working-man's holiday: the phrase being indeed perverted from its correct signification, and invested with a conventional meaning sufficiently removed from every exercise of body or mind that can be termed holy. This spurious philanthropy is much on the increase among us; to such an extent that we may as a matter of calculation look for enactments the very reverse of what the occasion calls for. The portion of need