Perhaps the English and Scotch might have given up Sunday dancing more readily than if they had been by nature as saltatory as the French are, but the British have given up many things that they cared for passionately. They gave up salmon-fishing, for example, which was not readily put down in Scotland, and the new legislation attained in the end that supreme success of the legislator when he establishes a very durable custom that would survive the repeal of his law. The power of the dead Puritans is shown in nothing more wonderfully than in the abstinence of British sportsmen when the twelfth of August occurs on a Sunday, and every fowling-piece in the British Islands remains unloaded till Monday morning. [Sidenote: New Customs.] This history of the divergence from continental custom may be written in two sentences. Puritanism obtained power to legislate, and made recreation illegal on Sunday. By laws of great severity it established new customs which have now, by lapse of time, become rather old customs; and these have completely obliterated from the ordinary British mind all traces of any recollection that the still older British customs were like those of the continental nations. [Sidenote: Development of Opinion.] [Sidenote: The Violin.] Opinion has gone even beyond legislation itself, by a process of growth and development. Here is an example. An amateur violinist was staying in an English house for a few days, including the first day of the week. He took his violin out of its case and began to play a little in private. The lady of the house immediately entered the room and begged him to desist. “I am playing sacred music,” he answered; “this is a part of Handel’s _Messiah_.” “That does not signify,” was the rejoinder, “the music may be sacred, but the instrument is not.” Here is a new development in the distinction between sacred and profane instruments, and a very subtle distinction it is. The organ, the harmonium,--in default of these, even the commonplace piano,--these are sacred instruments, but not the voice-like violin. Yet the violin is but the lyre--“Jubal’s lyre”--made capable of far more perfect expression.[61] [Sidenote: Rowing and Sailing on Sunday.] When I lived in Scotland I had occasion to observe another very subtle distinction. It is forbidden to labour on the Sabbath-day, yet I found that the toilsome work of rowing was looked upon as innocent in comparison with sailing. This was because a white sail had rather a festive appearance. I was especially blamed for not removing the flag from my sailing-boat, for the same reason, though it might be argued that there can be nothing unholy in the crosses of St. Andrew and St. George. In France, sailing regattas are usually held on Sunday, with the full approval of the Church. [Sidenote: Effect of the Sabbath on Literature.] [Sidenote: French Ignorance of the Bible.] [Sidenote: English prepared for German Criticism.]