When man reposes, all around him seems anxious to
contribute to his rest; and when he abandons the contentions of grosser
interests, to elevate his spirit, all living things appear to unite in
worship. Although this apparent sympathy of nature may be less true than
imaginative, its lesson is not destroyed, since it sufficiently shows that
what man chooses to consider good in this world is good, and that most of
its strife and deformities proceed from his own perversity.
The tenants of the valley of the Wish-Ton-Wish were little wont to disturb
the quiet of the Sabbath. Their error lay in the other extreme, since they
impaired the charities of life by endeavoring to raise man altogether
above the weakness of his nature. They substituted the revolting aspect of
a sublimated austerity, for that gracious though regulated exterior, by
which all in the body may best illustrate their hopes or exhibit their
gratitude. The peculiar air of those of whom we write was generated by the
error of the times and of the country, though something of its singularly
rigid character might have been derived from the precepts and example of
the individual who had the direction of the spiritual interests of the
parish.
Pages:
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488