The people of every class are constant in their attendance at
church; they are very fond of dancing, and the Sunday evenings in
Norway, as in Catholic countries, are spent in exercises which
exhilarate the spirits without vitiating the heart. The rest of
labour ought to be gay; and the gladness I have felt in France on a
Sunday, or Decadi, which I caught from the faces around me, was a
sentiment more truly religious than all the stupid stillness which
the streets of London ever inspired where the Sabbath is so
decorously observed. I recollect, in the country parts of England,
the churchwardens used to go out during the service to see if they
could catch any luckless wight playing at bowls or skittles; yet
what could be more harmless? It would even, I think, be a great
advantage to the English, if feats of activity (I do not include
boxing matches) were encouraged on a Sunday, as it might stop the
progress of Methodism, and of that fanatical spirit which appears to
be gaining ground. I was surprised when I visited Yorkshire, on my
way to Sweden, to find that sullen narrowness of thinking had made
such a progress since I was an inhabitant of the country. I could
hardly have supposed that sixteen or seventeen years could have
produced such an alteration for the worse in the morals of a place--
yes, I say morals; for observance of forms, and avoiding of
practices, indifferent in themselves, often supply the place of that
regular attention to duties which are so natural, that they seldom
are vauntingly exercised, though they are worth all the precepts of
the law and the prophets. Besides, many of these deluded people,
with the best meaning, actually lose their reason, and become
miserable, the dread of damnation throwing them into a state which
merits the term; and still more, in running after their preachers,
expecting to promote their salvation, they disregard their welfare
in this world, and neglect the interest and comfort of their