But this, alas! is a spectacle as rare as it is beautiful: we may wish for a theoretical good, but we must choose the practical. Next below the case just pictured, stands that of him whose piety perhaps is less fervent, his desire for relaxation less easily satisfied, and who, thirsting for one glimpse of nature, one breath of God’s air, one ray of God’s sunshine, must seek them where they can be found, must travel, in short, in quest of them. Shall we pass upon this man a sentence of harsh, of unqualified, censure? Shall we say that he who carries with him on the Sunday his wife and his children to some quiet country spot where he may shake off the distractions of business, refresh himself with the sights and sounds of freedom, and pray with his family in a Church less dark and less dank than he could find in the neighbourhood of his dwelling—shall we say that this man breaks God’s Law, and does despite to His holy day? Let others record this sentence—I dare not. But this I would say—that a freedom which he takes ought not to be made a yoke of bondage to another; that this liberty of his, so refreshing (if it be enjoyed in a Christian spirit) to soul and body, must be purchased for him at as small a cost as possible of Sunday toil on the part of others: let not the necessity which he feels, for entire relaxation on his day of rest, entail upon the servants of the Public a burdensome load of labour on a day of which they perhaps equally need the enjoyment: let the protective hand of legislation, if it be necessary, be interposed to regulate the hours and the method of his coming and going, that others may rest as well as he. And, further, I would urge that it is essential to the beneficial effects of this indulgence, that it should be enjoyed, as far as may be, in tranquillity and retirement; that it is one thing to travel on the Sunday to a country village, and another to be immersed in the bustle and excitement of a crowded fair; that that quietness of mind and feeling, which is one of the main blessings of a Christian Sunday, is necessarily impaired if the scene of relaxation be a focus of popular attraction, involving the visitor, without the possibility of escape, in the noise and the glare of a tumultuous assembly.