to and from Lancaster all day long, hunting the county up and down, and
regularly subsiding back into silence about sunset, could not fail
(when united with this permanent distinction of Lancashire as the very
metropolis and citadel of labour) to point the thoughts pathetically
upon that counter-vision of rest, of saintly repose from strife and
sorrow, towards which, as to their secret haven, the profounder
aspirations of man's heart are in solitude continually travelling.
Obliquely upon our left we were nearing the sea; which also must, under
the present circumstances, be repeating the general state of halcyon
repose. The sea, the atmosphere, the light, bore each an orchestral
part in this universal lull. Moonlight and the first timid tremblings
of the dawn were by this time blending; and the blendings were brought
into a still more exquisite state of unity by a slight silvery mist,
motionless and dreamy, that covered the woods and fields, but with a
veil of equable transparency. Except the feet of our own horses,--
which, running on a sandy margin of the road, made but little
disturbance,--there was no sound abroad. In the clouds and on the earth
prevailed the same majestic peace; and, in spite of all that the
villain of a schoolmaster has done for the ruin of our sublimer
thoughts, which are the thoughts of our infancy, we still believe in no
such nonsense as a limited atmosphere. Whatever we may swear with our
false feigning lips, in our faithful hearts we still believe, and must
for ever believe, in fields of air traversing the total gulf between
earth and the central heavens. Still, in the confidence of children
that tread without fear every chamber in their father's house, and to
whom no door is closed, we, in that Sabbatic vision which sometimes is
revealed for an hour upon nights like this, ascend with easy steps from
the sorrow-stricken fields of earth upwards to the sandals of God.

Suddenly, from thoughts like these I was awakened to a sullen sound, as