notions of religion, but as it puts both the sexes upon appearing in their most agreeable forms and exerting all such qualities as are apt to give them a figure in the eye of the village. A country fellow distinguishes himself as much in the churchyard as a citizen does upon the Change,1 the whole parish politics being generally discussed in that place either after sermon or before the bell rings.

My friend Sir Roger, being a good churchman, has beautified the inside of his church with several texts of his own choosing. He has likewise given a handsome pulpit cloth, and railed in the Communion table at his own expense. He has often told me that at his coming to his estate he found his parishioners very irregular, and that, in order to make them kneel and join in the responses, he gave every one of them a hassock and a Common Prayer Book, and at the same time employed an itinerant singing master, who goes about the country for that purpose, to instruct them rightly in the tunes of the psalms, upon which they now very much value themselves, and, indeed, outdo most of the country churches that I have ever heard.

As Sir Roger is landlord to the whole congregation, he keeps them in very good order, and will suffer nobody to sleep in it besides himself; for if by chance he has been surprised into a short nap at sermon, upon recovering out of it he stands up and looks about him, and if he sees anybody else nodding, either wakes them himself or sends his servant to them. Several other of the old knight's particularities break out upon these occasions: sometimes he will be lengthening out a verse in the singing psalms half a minute after the rest of the congregation have done with it; sometimes, when he is pleased with the matter of his devotion, he pronounces amen three or four times to the same prayer; and sometimes stands up when everybody else is upon their

1 Exchange.

knees to count the congregation, or see if any of his tenants are missing.

I was yesterday very much surprised to hear my old friend, in the midst of the service, calling out to one John Matthews to mind what he was about, and not disturb the congregation. This John Matthews, it seems, is remarkable for being an idle fellow, and at that time was kicking his heels for his diversion. This authority of the knight, though exerted in that odd manner which accompanies him in all circumstances of life, has a very good effect upon the parishioners, who are not polite enough to see anything ridiculous in his behavior; besides that, the general good sense and worthiness of his character make his friends observe these little singularities as foils that rather set off than blemish his good qualities.

As soon as the sermon is finished, nobody presumes to stir till Sir Roger is gone out of the church. The knight walks down from his seat in the chancel between a double row of his tenants that stand bowing to him on each side; and every now and then inquires how such a one's wife, or mother, or son, or father do whom he does not see at church; which is understood as a secret reprimand to the person that is absent.

The chaplain has often told me that upon a catechizing day, when Sir Roger has been pleased with a boy that answers well, he has ordered a Bible to be given him next day for his encouragement, and sometimes accompanies it with a flitch of bacon to his mother. Sir Roger has likewise added five pounds a year to the clerk's place; and, that he may encourage the young fellows to make themselves perfect in the church service, has promised, upon the death of the present incumbent, who is very old, to bestow it according to merit.

The fair understanding between Sir Roger and his chaplain, and their mutual concurrence in doing good, is the more remarkable because the very next village is famous for the differences and contentions that rise between the parson and

the squire, who live in a perpetual state of war. The parson is always preaching at the squire, and the squire, to be revenged on the parson, never comes to church. The squire has made all his tenants atheists and tithe stealers; while the parson instructs them every Sunday in the dignity of his order, and insinuates to them in almost every sermon that he is a better man than his patron. In short, matters are come to such an extremity that the squire has not said his prayers either in public or private this half year, and that the parson threatens him, if he does not mend his manners, to pray for him in the face of the whole congregation.

Feuds of this nature, though too frequent in the country, are very fatal to the ordinary people, who are so used to be dazzled with riches that they pay as much deference to the understanding of a man of an estate as of a man of learning; and are very hardly brought to regard any truth, how important soever it may be, that is preached to them when they know there are several men of five hundred a year who do not believe it.

Aside from the religious idea of the Sabbath, what reason does Addison give for observing the day? What does he mean by "the rust of the week"? Have you known any one whose conduct at church is like Sir Roger's? Give illustrations of Sir Roger's kindness to the people of his parish. How do you think they feel toward him? The author does not say whether he and the chaplain are friendly. What is your opinion on this point? Compare them with the squire and his chaplain in the next village. What method of showing Sir Roger's character does Addison employ? (See Suggestions, p. 89.) How many. instances of humor are there in this selection?

SUGGESTIONS FOR ORAL AND WRITTEN ENGLISH

THEME SUBJECTS

Using Addison's method, write a character sketch of some one in your church who is very generous: it may be either of a man who gives money or of a woman who uses her time and strength in service.

Make your own title and write a theme on one of the following topics:

The Old Gentlemen in the Front Pew. A Country Church.

Our Church Bazaar.

Winning a Sunday School Prize.

Why I Attend Sunday School.

A Sabbath in Colonial Days.
What I Do Sunday Afternoon.
What is the Sabbath for?

SUGGESTIONS FOR ADDITIONAL READINGS

From The Spectator: No. 109, Sir Roger's Ancestors; No. 115, Bodily Exercise; No. 116, Sir Roger and the Chase; No. 130, Sir Roger and the Gypsies; No. 132, The Journey to London.

From Irving's Sketch Book: The Country Church; The Stagecoach; Christmas Eve; Christmas Day.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

JOHN RUSKIN

John Ruskin (1819-1900), art critic, essayist, and social philosopher, was born in London. He was one of the great prose writers who helped to mold the thought of the Victorian age. His greatest works are Modern Painters and The Stones of Venice. Sesame and Lilies, a volume of essays, and The King of the Golden River, an altruistic story, are perhaps his most popular books. The following selection from his autobiography, to which he gave the title Præterita ("Things Past"), is important because it shows what early reading helped to make him a great prose writer. See also:

Halleck's New English Literature, pp. 488-495, 582.

Cook's The Life of John Ruskin.

Harrison's John Ruskin.

I AM, and my father was before me, a violent Tory of the old school; (Walter Scott's school, that is to say, and Homer's,) 1 I name these two out of the numberless great Tory writers, because they were my own two masters. I had Walter Scott's novels, and the Iliad (Pope's translation) for my only reading when I was a child, on week days: on Sundays their effect was tempered by Robinson Crusoe and the Pilgrim's Progress; my mother having it deeply in her heart to make an evangelical clergyman of me. Fortunately, I had an aunt more evangelical than my mother; and my aunt gave me cold mutton for Sunday's dinner, which - as I much preferred it hot-greatly diminished the influence of the Pilgrim's Progress, and the end of the matter was, that I got all the noble imaginative teaching of Defoe and Bunyan, and yet - am not an evangelical clergyman.

1 A Greek epic poet, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey.